Trump Declares Himself 'Acting President' of Venezuela, US Media Yawns
The Independent breathlessly reported that Donald Trump shared a 'fake Wikipedia page' calling himself 'Acting President' of Venezuela. (Because a former president making a clumsy joke is peak journalistic integrity, apparently.) The article then details the supposed snub to a Venezuelan official, completely ignoring the US’s own long-standing, very real attempts to install 'acting presidents' in
Caracas. Perhaps The Independent could have mentioned that the US government, under Trump and Biden, formally recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's 'interim president' for years, despite his lack of actual power or electoral legitimacy. This wasn't a 'fake Wikipedia page'; it was official US foreign policy, echoing a century of Washington's 'banana republic' playbook in Latin America. One might
wonder if the real 'snub' is the media's selective amnesia regarding genuine, rather than meme-based, interventions.