Fox News Got Everything Wrong About Trump's Invasion of Venezuela

A condensed overview of 29 hours of Fox News for the week ending 1/4/26

Last week Fox News started with lighthearted special episodes dedicated to New Year’s celebrations while the network hammered Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for a fraud scandal in his state. By Friday night Fox made an abrupt pivot to focus all its airtime to Trump’s surprise invasion of Venezuela and the capture of Nicolás Maduro.

During its frenetic coverage on Saturday morning most Fox News personalities and expert guests made declarations that were refuted by President Trump hours later during his press conference about the military action.

Most Fox News viewers probably had no idea who Nicolás Maduro was or why Trump suddenly wanted to capture him and bring him to the United States. The network still hasn’t even explained the history surrounding the rise of socialism in Venezuela or Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez.

Fox News repeated Trump’s many falsehoods and lies about the South American country. The network has reduced Maduro to a cartoonish drug dealing villain.

In some ways Maduro mirrors Trump as they both refused to accept the results of a legitimate presidential election. Maduro managed to hold onto power while Trump attempted a half-baked insurrection.

Maduro was a disastrous and corrupt leader who made life for most of the citizens of his county much worse. In recent years over a 1/5th of the population has fled the country.

Venezuelans have endured hyperinflation, a crumbling economy and violent crack downs on basic rights and liberties. Maduro and his cronies built up close relationships with China, Russia, Iran and Cuba.

It’s uncertain though if the removal of one man will turn the country around especially since the tyrant wasn’t removed by the people themselves. Most of his regime is still running the country.

The United States should have learned from its past mistakes involving regime change and nation building.

Some Important Context About Maduro - Fox Has Completely Ignored

Fox News frames Venezuela as a victim of evil socialists who somehow magically took over the country. The truth is far murkier and much more complicated.

Since Trump’s saber rattling towards the country started Fox has portrayed Venezuela as a once prosperous nation that was destroyed after socialists took over and American corporations were kicked out. There’s been no mention of the corruption, extreme income inequality and racial divisions that helped Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s predecessor, rise to power nearly 30 years ago.

There are good reasons the people of Venezuela didn’t trust American corporations exploiting their national resources before Hugo Chávez won his first election.

Socialism didn’t come to Venezuela in a revolution by force, a majority of Venezuelans enthusiastically voted for reforms from Chávez, a charismatic populist leader who ultimately couldn’t deliver on his promises. Chávez changed the Constitution to consolidate his power while making a series of missteps and mistakes that ultimately greatly damaged the Venezuelan economy.

One of the major flaws of the Chávez economic reforms was a heavy reliance on the nation’s revenue from the sale of crude oil. During the Chávez administration the global price of oil dropped significantly while Venezuela’s oil extraction infrastructure eroded after foreign companies were pushed out.

Maduro faired even worse than Chávez. As he faltered and Venezuelans became more desperate he tightened his grip over the country using force and intimidation to control the population. He also refused to leave power after the opposition party crushed him in the last election.

Shows I covered on Fox News last week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• Hannity

• Jimmy Failla NYE special

• Kat & Tyrus NYE special

• Who Can Forget 2025?

• Fox Nation Special about Teddy Roosevelt (shown on 12/31/25)

• Fox & Friends Saturday - all four hours

• The Big Weekend Show - three hours

• My View with Lara Trump - Saturday

• Trump press appearances

The U.S. DEFINITELY Doesn’t Want Venezuela’s Oil

Brent Sadler, a former Pentagon official, boldly declared that the United States was not interested in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves on the first hour of Fox & Friends.

“Well, I mean, a lot of the commentary about by President Trump’s detractors that this is about America wanting Venezuelan oil, which is hard to hard to rationalize quite frankly, given the amount of oil that we have under under American soil,” said Sadler.

Later Brian Kilmeade repeated the same talking point.

“We don’t want their oil. What we want is a, Venezuela that is not an enemy of democracy,” said Kilmeade.

Later during his press conference President repeatedly said he wanted to take control of Venezuela’s oil. He also said the country had somehow stolen oil from the United States.

“We are ready to stage a second and much larger attack. If we need to do so. So Venezuela unilaterally seized and sold American oil, American assets, an American platforms costing us billions and billions of dollars. We built Venezuela oil industry with American talent, drive and skill and the socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations . . . the massive oil infrastructure was taken like we were babies. We didn’t do anything about it,” said President Trump.

Later Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeated Trump’s claims about stolen oil.

“Deadly serious about getting back the oil that was stolen from us,” said Hegseth.

Trump went to the podium again and insisted that Venezuela stole American oil and he was going to rebuild the country’s oil industry.

“We are going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars. It’ll be paid for by the oil companies directly. They will, be reimbursed for what they’re doing, but it’s going to be paid . . .You know, they stole our, we built that whole industry there. But in terms of other countries that want oil, we’re in the oil business we’re going to sell it to. We’re not going to say, what are you? In other words, we’ll be selling oil, probably in much larger doses, because they couldn’t produce very much because their infrastructure was so bad. So we’ll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, many of whom are using it now. . .The oil companies are going to go and they’re going to spend money there that we’re going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago. A lot of money is coming out of the ground. We’re going to get reimbursed for all of that. We’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend,” said Trump.

The president has since clarified that he intends on using tax payer money to pay oil companies to repair and replace existing oil extraction equipment in Venezuela. Trump’s intention is that the oil companies would reimburse the government at some point.

Energy experts think it could take as much as $100 billion over the next decade to rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry.

Venezuela never stole oil from the United States government. Trump was conflating contracts the Venezuelan government had with oil companies based in the U.S.

The Venezuelan government nationalized its oil industry in 1976 which essentially revoked operating concessions with foreign oil companies that went back as far and the 1920’s and 30’s.

The companies never owned the oil extracted from Venezuela to begin with. Petroleum companies paid the Venezuelan government a royalty on the oil they extracted and sold.

The set up is similar to how oil and gas companies operate in the United States. Corporations pay a royalty and leasing fees on any oil or gas extracted on publicly owned lands.

In 2007 the Chavez administration in Venezuela exerted more state control over the oil industry essentially shutting out foreign oil companies.

More than one corporation successfully sued the Venezuelan government over their business loses. Venezuela owes settlements to more than one company including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.

Corporations that operate in the Unites States are not the same thing as the U.S. government. The U.S. military should not be used to settle scores for corporations or inflate their profits.

Fox Predicts - Trump Doesn’t Want to Run Venezuela

During the second hour of Fox & Friends Saturday Brian Kilmeade was invited on as a guest to discuss the invasion. He insisted that Trump had no plans to rule over or run Venezuela.

“We don’t want to control your country. But if you can’t control your country, we’ll take out the problem,” said Kilmeade.

Later in the same hour Fox Host Bret Baier also insisted that Trump was not planning on occupying Venezuela.

“And he said, we want to help you. And we want to make sure that you’re good to us in not so many words, but to not be the occupier. And I think that that is what we’re seeing here the scale of this operation,” said Baier.

Later that morning during his press conference President Trump brazenly said he wanted to ‘run’ Venezuela.

“What do you say to this? We’re there now, but we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place. So we’re going to stay until such time as we’re going to run it essentially, until such time as a proper transition can take place . . .But we’re going to be running it with a group and we’re going to make sure it’s run properly. . . When we say boots on the ground, so we’re not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to. Have we had boots on the ground last night at a very high level, actually. We’re not afraid of it. We don’t mind saying it, but we’re going to make sure that that country is run properly. We’re not doing this in vain . . .And we’re going to make sure that this is proper. We’re there now. We’re ready to go again if we have to. We’re going to run the country, right? It’s going to be run very, judiciously, very fairly, and it’s going to make a lot of money. We’re going to give money to the people. We’re going to reimburse, people that were taken advantage of . . . We’re going to take care of everybody. It’s very important. We couldn’t let them get away with it,” said Trump.

Later a journalist asked Trump exactly how he planned to run Venezuela.

“Was explaining the exact mechanism by which you’re going to run the country. Are you getting it designated?”

“Yes. It’s all being being done right now with designating people. We’re talking to people. We’re designating various people. And we’re going to let you know who those people are . . . We’ll run it properly. We’ll run it professionally. We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world going and invest billions and billions of dollars,” said Trump.

Fox News - This is Like the Fall of the Berlin Wall

On Fox & Friends Saturday Brent Sadler, a former Pentagon official, was the first person on Fox to compare Trump’s actions with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“This pendulum swing back to what we saw in the early 90s with the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union. Today’s decisive action is this hemisphere’s equivalent to the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Sadler.

Griff Jenkins then repeatedly cited a Tweet written by Florida congressman Carlos A. Gimenez where he also compared the seizure of Maduro to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez has reacted this morning, comparing what has just happened to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Put that in historical context for us,” said Jenkins.

“Well, yeah. So he’s coming from a perspective of for the people of Venezuela. This is a big moment. But I think that the the analogy is the people of East Germany. And when that actually happens, there is this relief,” said Bret Baier.

Later Jenkins asked former Trump administration advisor Victoria Coates of the Heritage Foundation what she thought of Gimenez’s statement.

“That Congressman Gimenez, Carlos Gimenez from Florida is saying that this is the equivalent to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Do you agree?” asked Jenkins.

“Well, Congressman Gimenez is, of course, and is of Cuban descent, has its strong interest in this. His constituents are all part of this community. And yes, for them, this is the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Coates.

Everyone on Fox News completely skipped over one crucial difference between the two events. In the case of the fall of the Berlin Wall the citizens of East and West Germany tore down the wall themselves.

Germany would most likely be quite different than it is today if a foreign country had invaded East Germany to topple its Communist regime on November 9, 1989.

Who’s Next? Mexico? Colombia? Cuba?

Multiple folks on Fox News were enthusiastic about invading any number of countries once the news broke about Trump’s invasion of Venezuela. On the first out of Fox & Friends Saturday, Charles Marino, a former DHS official during Trump’s first term mentioned Mexico and Colombia.

“I can tell you also, if I’m in Mexico and Colombia right now, I am paying very close attention to these operations,” said Marino.

Brian Kilmeade, often a war hawk, focused on Mexico.

“What is Mexico thinking? Run by drug cartels? Poisoning the American people, killing tens of thousands. . . I also think the cartels located in Mexico on their compounds have to be saying my next,” said Kilmeade.

Griff Jenkins included the entire Western Hemisphere.

“Yet Trump and his administration want to really tackle, as you were laying out from Mexico, the big picture to Colombia to the entire Western Hemisphere to to tackle such a huge, monumental task, which is to eradicate the threat of narcotics to the American people,” said Jenkins.

Wes Tabor, a former DEA agent predicted the U.S. might have a much tougher time in Mexico.

“Mexico is probably going to be the worst. I mean, just think about it. Everyone in that country almost is touched by some level of violence or crime caused from narco trafficking, said Tabor.

Victoria Coates of the Heritage Foundation claimed the Mexican president was deeply connected to drug cartels.

“Claudia Sheinbaum is probably legitimately concerned, given her ties to the drug cartels in Mexico.”

“It did happen from Mexican cartels to Colombian terrorists,” said Juan Carlos Pinzon, Former Colombian Ambassador to the U.S.

Bret Baier also included other countries.

“What are the next countries that you’re concerned about? Colombia. Next door. Mexico. How does that play out? And I think that those are the bigger picture questions as far more than the process questions of congressional approval . . . I thought it was also fascinating to talk about Mexico and Colombia and Cuba,” said Baier.

During the last hour of Fox & Friends Saturday President Trump called in to talk to hosts live on air.

“So was this operation a message that you’re sending to Mexico, to Claudia Sheinbaum, the president there?,” asked Griff Jenkins.

“Well, it wasn’t meant to be. And we’re very friendly with her. She’s a good woman. But the cartels are running Mexico. She’s not running Mexico. The cartels are running Mexico. And we could be politically correct and be nice and say, oh, yes, she is. No, no, she’s very you know, she’s very frightened of the cartels that are running Mexico. . . . but then they come in through the southern border and something’s going to have to be done with Mexico,” said Trump.

Venezuela Smuggles Fentanyl - NO IT DOESN’T

During the second hour of Fox & Friends Saturday Brett Velicovich, a former special operations soldier, implied that Venezuela was directly involved with the murder of Americans.

“Hey. Good morning. I think Maduro just discovered that the US doesn’t bluff when it comes to protecting our citizens. I mean, he needed to go. He and his regime were not just drug dealers, they were narco terrorists. And this was enforcement of the law against a dictator who was killing Americans for years,” said Velicovich.

Gregg Jarrett, a legal expert and Fox News contributor, pretended he was some kind of narcotics expert.

“You got narco terrorism conspiracy on the list. He was running this vast drug enterprise with Colombian rebels. And there are a great many other charges. Money laundering, corruption, weapons conspiracy. You’ve got election rigging, to be sure, bribery, jailing lawmakers. So, you know, this was high level criminality by Maduro. Basically, he helped flood the United States with deadly drugs. By using Venezuelan state resources. One can argue that he killed Americans,” said Jarrett.

Lara Trump, the daughter and law of the president and Fox News host, openly implicated Maduro as a fentanyl smuggler.

“Look, I think that when we’re talking about the damage that this one man has done to the people of Venezuela, to the people of the United States, I don’t know that you can overstate that. You talk about the 1.3 million Americans whose lives have been lost by illicit drugs, by fentanyl pouring over our southern border,” said Lara Trump.

According to the Government Accountability Office most drug overdoses, about 60%, in the United States are caused by fentanyl. About 80% of fentanyl crosses through the U.S. Southern border through Mexico with the precursors for the drug coming from China.

During the end of Trump’s first administration the DEA published a report about the flow of fentanyl into the United States. Venezuela wasn’t even mentioned in the report.

The report did include this map that describes the source of fentanyl which doesn’t even include Venezuela.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse the second cause of drug overdoses in the United States are due to methamphetamine. According to reporting by The New York Times only about 6.3% of drug overdoses were caused by cocaine alone. Most overdose deaths involve more than one drug.

Venezuelan drug cartels mainly smuggle and sell marijuana, and cocaine. Marijuana is legal in many U.S. states and openly grown by farmers where it is legal to do so.

Venezuela is not a major player in the trade of methamphetamine or fentanyl. The country isn’t even a major supplier of illegal drugs to the United States.

Mike Pompeo Gets EVERYTHING Wrong about Trump’s Plans for Venezuela

Also on Fox & Friends Saturday former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, thought President Trump would never place Delcy Rodriquez, the former vice president of Venezuela in a position of power after ousting Maduro.

“You mentioned, Mr. Secretary Delcy Rodriguez, the Vice president, and what do you make of the challenge that the administration may have now specifically? Well, Secretary Rubio, who at that press conference said that, you know, he he had spoken to Rodriguez and President Trump saying that she was going to be on board. But since then, later this afternoon, Delcy Rodriguez has really blasted condemning the attack, saying that, you know, the Venezuela will never return to be a colony of another country. It just suggests that things may not go as smoothly as as we were led to believe. At the press conference,” said Griff Jenkins.

“Well, I’m certainly not privy to the conversations between the administration and Delcy Rodriguez, but I know exactly who Delcy Rodriguez is. She is with she was with Chavez as she was with Maduro. This these horses very rarely change their color. I don’t expect that she would. Perhaps the military will put pressure on her. Perhaps there are people inside the military who are just done protecting these thugs. They stole two elections. We’ll see where the military lands. But I can’t imagine that someone who was a senior official in the Maduro administration and along with Chavez. So now decades, is someone who is going to deliver peace, freedom and a good economic outcome for the people of Venezuela,” said Pompeo.

On Monday Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as the new interim president of Venezuela.

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve covered from Fox News with five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. This past week I covered both PBS weekend episodes for Saturday and Sunday. Source - PBS News Hour transcripts. This list has been truncated due to space.

• The U.S. announced its first major humanitarian agreement of the second Trump administration in the U.S. to distribute humanitarian aid with the United Nations. The U.S. pledged $2 billion, which the U.N.’s emergency chief called landmark, but it’s a fraction of the money the U.S. has historically contributed to U.N. agencies every year. The U.S. says the new funding mechanism is an attempt to reduce bloat by funneling money to a coordinating U.N. agency, rather than individual agencies like UNICEF. The U.S. pledge also came with a threat. Those U.N. agencies, the State Department said, must “adapt, shrink, or die.” (PBS News Hour)

• The United Arab Emirates is pulling its remaining forces out of Yemen after Saudi Arabia attacked an Emirati shipment in a Yemeni port. The strike is an escalation in tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE and threatens to reignite the civil war in Yemen. The head of Yemen’s Presidential Council, which is Saudi-backed, said a defense pact with the UAE would be canceled. (PBS News Hour)

• And Tatiana Schlossberg, journalist, author, mother of two young children and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, has died. Schlossberg was the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg and covered the environment for The New York Times and others. Last month, she wrote a harrowing piece for The New Yorker, in which she described her battle with a rare form of leukemia. In that same article, she was critical of her mother’s cousin, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying his policies could hurt cancer patients like her. Her passing was announced in a social media post by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Tatiana Schlossberg was 35 years old. (PBS News Hour)

• Newly released transcripts and videos show that former special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers that the January 6 riot “does not happen without President Trump.” That’s from a closed-door hearing earlier this month with the House Judiciary Committee. Lawmakers grilled Smith for eight hours earlier this month over two criminal investigations he launched into Trump. One focused on the president’s role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, while the other related to classified documents after Trump’s first term ended. (PBS News Hour)

• In Iowa, a win for Democrats in a holiday special election for the state's Senate. Renee Hardman's victory in a suburban Des Moines district blocks Republicans from regaining a supermajority in that chamber. That means Republican Governor Kim Reynolds will need some Democratic support to approve appointees. Hardman's victory also makes her the first Black woman to be elected to the Iowa State Senate. (PBS News Hour)

• For the past 15 years, the fact-checkers at PolitiFact have sorted through hundreds of statements by politicians to name the "Lie of the Year." This year, the editors dubbed 2025 the "Year of the Lies." PolitiFact editor in chief Katie Sanders said “The volume and severity of the inaccurate claims was just overwhelming. And we felt that it was insufficient to name just one our lie the year.” The main source of those lies was President Donald J. Trump. (PBS News Hour)

• In Mexico, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck outside the resort city of Acapulco last Friday, leaving at least two people dead. The quake struck as President Claudia Sheinbaum was giving her first press briefing of the new year.

  In Acapulco itself, tourists and workers evacuated hotels and found themselves on the streets. Mexican authorities reported at least 500 aftershocks after the initial quake. (PBS News Hour)

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has named the country’s military intelligence chief as his new chief of staff. Zelenskyy says the appointment of General Kyrylo Budanov is meant to emphasize Ukraine’s focus on its security, defense and diplomatic efforts. Budanov is one of Ukraine’s most recognizable wartime figures and has frequently warned of Russia’s long-term intentions towards Ukraine and the region. Also last Friday, two Russian missiles struck a multistory building in Kharkiv in Northeastern Ukraine. At least 19 people were injured, including a six-month-old baby. (PBS News Hour)

• The Trump administration is now backing off plans to impose steep levies on Italian-made pastas. Italy’s Foreign Ministry says the U.S. will now impose tariffs of between 2 and 14% on more than a dozen pasta producers. That is a far cry from the 92% rate that the U.S. had threatened in October, which would have come on top of the existing 15% on most European Union imports.

  The Commerce Department says that the lower rates come after Italian exporters had addressed concerns about unfair prices. (PBS News Hour)

By the Numbers