“The administration is very divided,” Paul W. Posner, a Venezuela expert at Clark University, told The Hill. “Trump likes Bolton’s rhetoric, but I don’t think he’s interested in intervening in Venezuela.”

The president tends to “adopt positions he thinks will help him politically at home,” Posner added. “He’s not going to pull the trigger.”

But much of what the White House has been saying on Venezuela has been influenced by Bolton, according to William LeoGrande a professor at American University who specializes in U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America.

“I think there’s no doubt that John Bolton has been leading this policy both publicly and, I suspect, in private,” LeoGrande said. “What little Trump has said about Venezuela has been straight out of Bolton’s playbook.”