In the early hours of Jan. 3, energy magnate Harry Sargeant III was in bed at his waterfront Florida mansion, struggling to fall to sleep. He had uncharacteristically forgotten to turn his phone off, and was startled when text messages and news reports began flooding in of a surprise U.S. military raid in Venezuela. Following the action in real time, the 68-year-old former Top Gun pilot—and sometime golfing partner of Donald Trump’s—alternated between feeling hopeful and fearful. As perhaps the only U.S. businessman who could shuttle between Mar-a-Lago and the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, few Americans had worked harder…

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