Bulwark Managing Editor Sam Stein and Publisher Sarah Longwell say Donald Trump’s inconsistent reasoning for invading Venezuela and kidnapping its president suggests other ulterior motives behind the attack.
“He said in his Fox interview,” said Stein, speaking on a live podcast of the president’s Saturday morning press conference on the invasion. “… This gets to motivations and obviously there’s a question of [Venezuela’s] oil or is it the drugs. He did notably compare Maduro’s election to his own 2020 loss. … It seems wild but there’s … been this longstanding election conspiracy in MAGA circles that Venezuela was involved in rigging the election in 2020. It's crazy and disproven but could it be a motivation?”
Last November, Trump’s federal investigators began interviewing people pushing unfounded claims that Venezuela helped steal the 2020 election from Trump. Two conspiracy theorists, according to the Guardian, briefed the U.S. attorney for the district of Puerto Rico, W Stephen Muldrow, and shared witnesses and documents with officials, according to multiple sources.
Critics said the bogus investigation revealed the willingness of Trump’s justice department to make itself a major weapon in Trump’s efforts to rewrite the history of his 2020 failure, while also buttressing arguments to take military action against Venezuela.
“If that is part of Trump’s calculus then that is Trump’s addled, insane, conspiracy mind making it up,” answered Longwell. “It’s funny because it’s Jan. 3. We are up on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attacks resulting from Trump’s taking that [stolen election] lie and shoving that conspiracy theory to his supporters and the Republican Party.”
Longwell added that Trump offers “no consistent position for taking Maduro out,” while also pardoning proven drug kingpins including Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernándezjust a few months ago.
“[Since] there [is no] direct American benefit from this then what you have left is Trump’s weird grievance over his belief that Venezuela interfered in his reelection and the cosplaying he loves to do looking like a tough guy on the international stage,” Longwell said. “Who can make sense of what’s going on in Trump’s head?”
Watch the Bulwark podcast at this link.