The Venezuelan Fable of Trump and Musk

The Venezuelan Fable of Trump and Musk
The recent exchange on platform X between former United States President Donald Trump and Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, exemplified a two-hour spectacle rife with hyperbole, caricatured political rhetoric, simplification, and misinformation. This dialogue constituted a full-fledged rally, in which Trump resurrected his familiar narrative in a setting particularly conducive to the spread of falsehoods. The interaction between these two prominent figures served primarily to amplify their respective ideological stances while reaffirming some of the most elementary prejudices held by segments of the population, especially xenophobia and the fear of impoverished foreigners. Many of the assertions made during this conversation would likely fail to meet even flimsy credibility standards in a work of fiction. Nevertheless, Musk’s social media platform, a successor to Twitter—which had previously banned Trump after the Capitol riot—has become a powerful vehicle for disseminating such narratives.

Immigration emerged as a principal theme of their live discussion, moderated by Musk from a friend’s ranch in Wyoming. The unfounded claim that dangerous criminals from various countries are sent to the United States has been in circulation for years. Trump stated, “They are released from prisons—prisons which, you know, are very costly to maintain, even without much upkeep. I assure you, they are released and brought to the United States, where they are told: ‘Do not return or you will be executed.’ They do not want to go back. They come from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. They come from everywhere, and many of them are truly dangerous.”

The narrative linking immigration to criminality is a semantic ploy that has been effective for decades on both sides of the Atlantic. This was compounded by a further insinuation that migrants are synonymous with laziness and unproductiveness. Trump continued, “They are also bringing in non-productive people. Now, these individuals are not likely to harm you. We have enough of those. But these are people who simply refuse to work, whatever the reason may be. Countries are unloading unproductive individuals in caravans, along with their murderers and drug traffickers.”

Using this rhetoric, Trump often targets Democratic nominees, especially Vice President Kamala Harris. In this recent discussion on X, he included Venezuela in his assertions. “She is allowing dangerous criminals from Venezuela to enter freely through our expansive southern border,” he claimed, “and now she is seeking to introduce Venezuela’s perilous economic policies to our nation. If Kamala is elected and implements her communist price controls, we will witness famines, starvation, and poverty like we have never seen before. The United States will NEVER recover!”

Until the very end, Trump fashioned this dire account of Venezuela’s political and social crisis, exacerbated since the elections of July 28. He referred to the massive exodus of people from Venezuela to corroborate his assertion about the dangers of migrants, tying the plight of millions to his announcement of mass deportations. “We are going to execute the largest deportation in the history of this country. We have no other option […]. In Venezuela and several other nations, crime rates have dropped significantly—by 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%… They have disposed of about 70% of their truly dangerous people.” Just a few days prior, Nicolas Maduro, who revels in the absurdities of the extreme right, announced a temporary ban on X: “X will be banned in Venezuela for 10 days! Our country upholds the Constitution, the law, institutions, and the state.” The Chavismo regime, which thrives on propaganda and misinformation, also seeks to maintain its monopoly on the narrative.