• Fox’s Brian Kilmeade: “I have news for you. The Republicans don’t have a health care program. They can’t have a crisis.”

Last Saturday, the United States conducted military strikes and captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; he is currently being held in New York City on charges related to alleged drug trafficking. After years of decrying American military intervention, many right-wing media personalities not only celebrated Maduro’s abduction, but began rattling their sabers for more. 

As President Donald Trump, who ran for president on promises of “no new wars,” contemplates further military intervention in other countries such as Colombia, Cuba, and Greenland, MAGA’s seemingly isolationist policy platform has imploded. 

• Fox’s Will Cain: “There’s no such thing as international law. There is only such thing as conquest.” 
• Fox’s Trey Gowdy said, “If we think that Venezuela is the stopping point, you don’t know Donald Trump or Marco Rubio very well.” 
• Podcaster Tim Pool: “We should have Greenland.” 

Prior to the Trump administration’s January 3 capture of Maduro, right-wing media figures mused about Trump ousting Maduro and/or taking control of the country’s oil. After the attack, Trump, who previously argued that the U.S. should have seized oil supplies from Iraq, cited supposed theft from U.S. oil companies and promised that they in turn would have a major role in Venezuela’s oil industry. Now that the U.S. has ousted Maduro, right-wing figures are cheering on the Trump administration conducting a war for oil. 

• Fox’s Greg Gutfeld justified taking Venezuelan oil by claiming, “It was our oil.” 
• Newsmax host Rob Schmitt said Venezuela has “a massive oil reserve” and overthrowing Maduro “has a huge upside.” 

It’s startling to see the Trump administration and its media cronies so openly say these things after the Bush administration’s disastrous invasion of Iraq and the allegations that swirled about that being a war for oil.

Oil and further conquest may be the darkest side of this story, but they are not the weirdest. Enter podcaster Benny Johnson, who said the day after the Maduro raid, “Nicolás Maduro might be Trump’s final revenge for the election theft of 2020.” Johnson is not alone in making this deranged claim as other MAGA influencers also suggest that the U.S. overthrew Maduro in retaliation for Venezuela supposedly rigging the 2020 U.S. election via election technology companies — a false conspiracy theory that Trump appeared to endorse following the military strikes. If you would like to read more about this, I invite you to check out Matt Gertz’s analysis of this bizarre side to the Maduro raid.

• Podcaster Megyn Kelly said watching Fox’s coverage on Venezuela “was like watching Russian propaganda.” 
• Podcaster Tim Dillon said Trump has posted about protecting protesters in Iran while at the same time “he’s threatened to kill protesters in our country.” 
• All-In host Jason Calacanis: “The delivery that’s come in from the Trump administration on inflation and on the economy is not good if you’re in the bottom half of society that doesn’t own equities.”

On Wednesday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an immigration crackdown in the city. 

Fox News’ coverage of the incident provides a clear demonstration of how it pushes Trump administration propaganda. After the shooting, the network was quick to push dubious claims from the administration. According to a Media Matters review, Fox aired clips or read quotes from statements made by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in press conferences at least 17 times during its January 7 coverage of the incident. As videos of the event started to emerge, however, some Fox figures briefly tempered their language. In some instances, they noted that there is a “shifting narrative” and that some Trump administration claims might have been “bad information.” 

That moderation didn’t last long — Fox’s evening programming went immediately back to toeing the administration’s line. State and local officials, meanwhile, have called out the administration’s claims that were parroted by Fox. Other national media outlets likewise disputed Fox and the Trump administration’s claims. 

This was not the first time the Trump administration and Fox have been caught being dishonest about ICE actions, and it almost certainly will not be the last. But amidst all of the political and media theater, it’s important to keep in mind that someone lost their life. And in a telling response to that, one Newsmax host said, “I don’t lose any sleep for this woman because she seemed crazy.”

• Benny Johnson claimed he witnessed military preparations for the Maduro raid: “I witnessed what was about to happen in Venezuela. This was the dry run.” 
• Will Cain: “If you fly a flag in the Western hemisphere, that flag might be soon the stars and stripes.”

Five years after the January 6 insurrection, the insidious counternarrative Trump’s MAGA media allies pieced together to excuse his conduct is the official position of the White House. In a sign of how firmly that revisionism has taken hold, on Tuesday, right-wing commentators largely parroted the Trump line on the storming of the U.S. Capitol, mocked those who care about that assault on American democracy, or remained silent. 

After Trump lost the 2020 election, he initiated a well-telegraphed plot to use baseless claims of widespread fraud to subvert the vote and remain in power. Right-wing media, led by Fox News, championed his often deranged conspiracy theories, though Fox executives and hosts privately acknowledged they knew he had been defeated and his claims otherwise were lies. 

Five years later, the White House celebrated the anniversary of January 6 with a splash webpage laying out the false right-wing counternarrative of those events. Commentators on the right — including those who once denounced Trump’s role in the violent attack — show little interest in pushing back on those lies now. Some have adopted the false narrative whole hog, while others seem to have either made their peace with what he did or have been effectively purged from the movement. 

The Trump administration and MAGA media have waged an assault on history, attempting to make lies truth through sheer force of will. They can only win if those who know better refuse to accept their lies.