Wall Street Journal accused of selling Trump’s war on Venezuela

In the runup to the US’s illegal invasion of Iraq, many outlets pushed outright falsehoods to support the politicians who craved war. Now, with the US threatening to invade Venezuela, we’re seemingly seeing the same thing happening all over:

This nonsensical Venezuela war propaganda is the new version of the “WMDs” lie that the US media spread to sell the invasion of Iraq.

What are the “sources” for this disinfo? A US military intelligence officer, anonymous “Western officials”, unnamed “experts”, and Marco Rubio. https://t.co/o9k72Xw6Vb pic.twitter.com/ui33YaD8wJ

— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 1, 2025

‘Narco-terrorism’

Figures in the Trump administration are claiming that Venezula is overrun with what they’re calling ‘narco-terrorists’. Among them is war secretary Pete Hegesth, who was recently accused of ordering the killing of two shipwrecked men (a war crime). This is how he’s discussing the topic:

The US Secretary of Defense/War, Pete Hegseth, just posted this: pic.twitter.com/DwjegnVMod

— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) December 1, 2025

While his administration is selling this narrative, Donald Trump has openly stated he just wants the oil:

Trump: “I want Venezuela’s oil for free”

MAGAtards: “Trump just wants to free Venezuela from a dictator”pic.twitter.com/bLRIwgUuKf

— MenchOsint (@MenchOsint) November 30, 2025

Trump was also excited to discover that leaders can cancel elections if their country is at war:

Breaking Video! Trump Just Called Zelensky Out For Being A Dictator For Not Holding Elections While In A War

Trump Went On To Ask If He Could Cancel The 2028 Election If He Was In A War. pic.twitter.com/xIb0ByiayL

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) August 18, 2025

Trump is so bad at sticking to the script that he literally just pardoned a politician who was heavily involved in drug trafficking:

Still think overthrowing Maduro is about “fighting narco-terrorists?” https://t.co/L9V6awQQdp pic.twitter.com/l4ctlhV0N4

— The Millennial Snowflake 🇵🇸 (@Teh_Snowflake) December 2, 2025

As Ben Norton noted at the top, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is reliant on a motley bunch of unnamed sources and political insiders to sell their story. Here’s one section from the WSJ article:

The confluence of drug smugglers, jihadists and corrupt officials is part of a growing global alignment among criminal gangs, militant groups and rogue governments that threatens democratic norms and social stability, with profound potential ramifications.

Now, the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro—who it asserts is heavily involved in drug smuggling—has brought global attention to the country’s role in the drug trade. Maduro has denied the allegation.

That’s right; the Trump administration is here to save the “democratic norms” – something he’s famously defended throughout his political career.

It’s no wonder people are reacting to the article like this:

https://t.co/IZxCyBaFGp pic.twitter.com/winZTE2ox0

— Seth Harp (@sethharpesq) December 1, 2025

Venezuela … communism… cocaine… jihad … Africa … Europe
They pressing all the buzz words with this one https://t.co/ugjEtRdZkM pic.twitter.com/H0CnLWGbi0

— 🗿 (@itsm0hammed) December 2, 2025

*rolls dice* Venezuelan gangs
*spins spinner* and African jihadists
*throws dart at the board* smuggling cocaine
*flips coin* to Europe https://t.co/Vb8ZpOaXQQ

— Ved (@vedantvedantved) December 1, 2025

Manufactured Consent: ONLINE https://t.co/J713SiQXAm pic.twitter.com/LBCum3KpzO

— Isaac (@GalaxyPeaBrain) December 2, 2025

Manufacturing consent

The concept of ‘manufacturing consent’ was described by Noam Chomsky in his book of the same name, in which he wrote:

The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfil this role requires systematic propaganda.

He also wrote:

Propaganda campaigns in general have been closely attuned to elite interests.

The Red scare of 1919-20 have served well to abort the union-organizing drive that followed World War I in the sell and other industries. The Truman-McCarthy Red scare helped inaugurate the Cold War and the permanent war economy, and it also served to weaken the progressive coalition of the New Deal years.

The chronic focus on the plight of Soviet dissidents, on enemy killings in Cambodia, and on the Bulgarian Connection helped weaken the Vietnam syndrome, justify a huge arms buildup and a more aggressive foreign policy, and divert attention from upward redistribution of income that was the heart of Reagan’s domestic economic program.

The recent propaganda-disinformation attacks on Nicaragua have been needed to avert eyes from the savagery of the war in El Salvador and to justify the escalating U.S. investment in counterrevolution in Central America.

They’re struggling to manufacture consent this time around, because essentially there is no ‘mass’ media anymore, and people are tired of bullshit wars:

🆕 POLL:

17% of Americans support regime change war in Venezuela

Only 33% of Trump ’24 voters support a Venezuela war

71% of Americans think Trump should get authorization from Congress for a war in Venezuela — including 57% of Trump ’24 voters pic.twitter.com/gBfc1G7Orj

— Just Foreign Policy (@justfp) November 21, 2025

This inability to create a consensus may not prevent an invasion, but it will mean it’s harder for Trump and his cronies to weather the political fallout.

Featured image via Heute / Gage Skidmore (Flickr)