[link removed]

FAIR
View article on FAIR's website ([link removed])
Editorial Boards Cheer Trump Doctrine in Venezuela Ari Paul ([link removed])


“History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” Mark Twain allegedly ([link removed]) quipped. On January 3, 1990, Panamanian Commander Manuel Noriega surrendered to US forces ([link removed]) , who carried him off to face drug charges. Thirty-six years to the day later, US forces swooped into Venezuela ([link removed]) , abducting President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, following decades of hostility ([link removed]) between the oil-rich socialist country and the United States. The pretext offered: Maduro had to be taken to the US to face drug charges.

The coincidence is a reminder that the US has a long history ([link removed]) of both covert and military intervention in Latin America: President Donald Trump, as extreme as he might be, isn’t an outlier among American presidents in this regard. And despite the right’s attempt to paint Trump as some sort of peacenik (Compact, 4/7/23 ([link removed]) ; X, 10/14/25 ([link removed]) ), he is no less an imperialist ([link removed]) than his predecessors.

And that’s precisely why ([link removed]) many of the nation’s leading editorial pages are hailing Maduro’s capture.


** 'Hemispheric hygiene'
------------------------------------------------------------
WSJ: Trump’s Regime Change in Venezuela

To the Wall Street Journal (1/3/26 ([link removed]) ), the devastation of Venezuela's economy was not the intentional effect of US sanctions, but part of President Nicolás Maduro's sinister scheme to "flood...the US with migrants in an effort to sow political discord."

The Wall Street Journal editorial board (1/3/26 ([link removed]) ) called the abductions “an act of hemispheric hygiene,” a dehumanizing comparison of Venezuela's leaders to germs needing to be cleansed.

For the Journal, the abductions were justified because they weren’t just a blow to Venezuela, but to the rest of America’s official enemies. “The dictator was also part of the axis of US adversaries that includes Russia, China, Cuba and Iran,” it said. It called Maduro’s “capture…a demonstration of Mr. Trump’s declaration to keep America’s enemies from spreading chaos in the Western Hemisphere.” It amplified Trump’s own rhetoric ([link removed]) of adding on to the Roosevelt Corollary, saying “It’s the ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine”—a nod to the long-standing imperial notion that the US more or less owns the Western Hemisphere.

The next day, the Journal editorial board (1/4/26 ([link removed]) ) even seemed upset that the Trump administration didn’t go far enough in Venezuela, worrying that it left the socialist regime in place, whose “new leaders rely so much on aid from Cuba, Russia, China and Iran.” “Despite Mr. Trump’s vow that the US will ‘run the country,’ there is no one on the ground to do so,” the paper complained, thus reducing “the US ability to persuade the regime.”

The Washington Post board (1/3/26 ([link removed]) ) took a similar view to the Journal. “This is a major victory for American interests,” it wrote. “Just hours before, supportive Chinese officials held a chummy meeting with Maduro, who had also been propped up by Russia, Cuba and Iran.”
WaPo: Justice in Venezuela

Washington Post (1/3/26 ([link removed]) ): "Trump had telegraphed for months that Maduro could not remain in power, yet Venezuela’s illegitimate leader clung on." The effrontery!

The Post, which has moved steadily to the right ([link removed]) since Trump’s inauguration a year ago, seemed to endorse extreme “might makes right” militarism. "Maduro’s removal sends an important message to tin-pot dictators in Latin America and the world: Trump follows through,” the board wrote. (Really? Did we miss when Trump "followed through" on his promise to end the Ukraine War ([link removed]) within 24 hours? Or to take back ([link removed]) the Panama Canal? Or make Canada the 51st state ([link removed]) ?) It belittled Democratic President Joe Biden, who “offered sanctions relief to Venezuela, and Maduro responded to that show of weakness by stealing an election.”

Like the Journal, the Post board (1/4/26 ([link removed]) ) followed up a day later to push Trump to take a more active role in Venezuela’s future. It worried about his decision to leave in place "dyed-in-the-wool Chavista" Delcy Rodriguez and other "hard-liners" in Maduro's administration.

The Post chided Trump for dismissing the idea of installing opposition leader María Corina Machado, who it deemed a worthy partner in imperial prospects: “She has a strong record of standing for democracy and free markets, and she’s committed to doing lucrative business with the US.” As with the Journal, the assumption that it's up to the US to choose Venezuela's leadership went unquestioned.


** 'Fueled economic and political disruption'
------------------------------------------------------------
NYT: Trump’s Attack on Venezuela Is Illegal and Unwise

The New York Times editorialists (1/3/26 ([link removed]) ) were an exception in not prioritizing their hatred of Maduro over international law—though they made it clear that they do hate Maduro.

The New York Times editorial board (1/3/26 ([link removed]) ), on the other hand, condemned the abductions, saying Trump’s attack “represents a dangerous and illegal approach to America’s place in the world.”

But the board only did so after the requisite vilifying, asserting that "few people will feel any sympathy for Mr. Maduro. He is undemocratic and repressive, and has destabilized the Western Hemisphere in recent years."

You're writing from the country that has spent the past four months blowing up small craft ([link removed]) in the Caribbean, and you think it's Maduro who has "destabilized the Western Hemisphere"?

Even as CBS News content czar Bari Weiss spiked ([link removed]) a 60 Minutes piece ([link removed]) about the plight of Venezuelan migrants under the administration’s brutal round-ups, the Times editorial blamed Maduro alone for the humanitarian crisis at hand. “He has fueled economic and political disruption throughout the region by instigating an exodus of nearly 8 million migrants,” the editorial said. As is typical in US commentary on Venezuela (FAIR.org, 2/6/19 ([link removed]) ), the word "sanctions" does not appear in the editorial, though US strictures have fueled an economic collapse ([link removed]) three times worse than the Great Depression.

And it comes after the Times opinion page gave space calling for regime change in Venezuela. “Washington should approach dismantling the Maduro regime as we would any criminal enterprise,” wrote Jimmy Story (New York Times, 12/26/25 ([link removed]) ), a former US ambassador to Venezuela. Right-wing Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote a piece simply headlined “The Case for Overthrowing Maduro” (11/17/25 ([link removed]) ).

The Times didn’t mention the recent seizures of ships carrying Venezuelan oil (BBC, 12/21/25 ([link removed]) ; Houston Public Media, 12/22/25 ([link removed]) )—or the issue of Venezuela’s oil at all, though even the paper's own news section (1/3/25 ([link removed]) ) admitted that oil was "central" to the kidnapping. ​“They stole our oil,” Trump dubiously claimed ([link removed]) in his public address, bragging that the door to the country was now open to have “very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars…and start making money for the country.”

These are glaring oversights by the Times board, even if it ultimately waved its finger at the administration for its military action. Contrast this to the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle (1/3/26 ([link removed]) ), which serves a huge portion of the energy sector:

Even now we’re still asking: Why? Why is the US taking such drastic military action? Is it to “take back” our oil? To deport Venezuelans en masse ([link removed]) ? To fight drug trafficking? To send a message to Cuba ([link removed]) ?

Perhaps this cloud of justifications just conceals the truth—there is no real reason. Trump seems to be doing this because he can.


** 'Not a guarantee'
------------------------------------------------------------
Dallas Morning News: Maduro had to be removed

"Maduro Had to Be Removed," the Dallas Morning News (1/3/26 ([link removed]) ) editorialized—"for the cause of human freedom around the world."

Elsewhere in the press, the operation against Maduro won support from editorial boards that also reserved the right to say "I told you so." “Maduro Had to Be Removed,” said the Dallas Morning News editorial board (1/3/26 ([link removed]) ) in its headline, adding in the subhead, “But the US Cannot ‘Run’ Venezuela.”

And the Miami Herald editorial board (1/3/26 ([link removed]) ), which serves a large anti-socialist Latin American population, said that while Maduro out of power was "obviously cause for enormous joy," this was “not a guarantee for democracy.” “Is Trump’s true interest to see democracy in Venezuela," it asked, "or to install a new leader who’s more friendly to the US and its interests in the nation’s oil reserves?”

The Chicago Tribune editorial board (1/5/25 ([link removed]) ) heaped paragraphs of praise on the Maduro mission—"we don’t lament Maduro’s exit for a moment"—and scoffed at “left-wing mayors” who “howled in protest at the weekend actions.” But it saw a moral dilemma:

What moral authority does the US now have if, say, China, removes the Taiwanese leadership, deeming it incompatible with Chinese interests? Not much. And this action surely weakens the moral argument against Vladimir Putin, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is now hoping Russia’s leader is the next authoritarian Trump takes out.

The New York Times editorial board (12/21/89 ([link removed]) ) said something similar 36 years ago, when the US invaded Panama. While justifying the invasion, it asked, “What kind of precedent does the invasion set for potential Soviet action in Eastern Europe?”

Perhaps rather than worrying that US behavior will encourage some other country to behave lawlessly, US papers could be more concerned about their own country's lawlessness. By kidnapping a foreign head of state, the Trump administration is saying that international law doesn't apply to the United States. That's a sentiment most American editorialists are all too ready to applaud—despite the danger it poses ([link removed]) for Americans, and for the world.
Read more ([link removed])

Share this post: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="Twitter"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="Twitter" alt="Twitter" class="mc-share"></a>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="Facebook"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="Facebook" alt="Facebook" class="mc-share"></a>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="Pinterest"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="Pinterest" alt="Pinterest" class="mc-share"></a>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="LinkedIn"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="LinkedIn" alt="LinkedIn" class="mc-share"></a>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="Google Plus"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="Google Plus" alt="Google Plus" class="mc-share"></a>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="[link removed]" title="Instapaper"><img border="0" height="15" width="15" src="[link removed]" title="Instapaper" alt="Instapaper" class="mc-share"></a>
​

© 2021 Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you signed up for email alerts from
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

Our mailing address is:
FAIRNESS & ACCURACY IN REPORTING
124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201
New York, NY 10001

FAIR's Website ([link removed])

FAIR counts on your support to do this work — please donate today ([link removed]) .

Follow us on Twitter ([link removed]) | Friend us on Facebook ([link removed])

change your preferences ([link removed])
Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
[link removed]
unsubscribe ([link removed]) .