In the annals of international relations, there have been audacious claims. There have been blunders. But rarely has a sitting US president taken to social media to brandish a digitally concocted title — “Acting President of Venezuela" — with the implication that he now leads a sovereign nation half a hemisphere away.

This is not satire, not a movie script, not even the fevered imagination of a political cartoonist. It is Truth Social on January 12, 2026.

The image posted by US President Donald Trump was unmistakable in its intent — styled like an edited Wikipedia entry, presenting him as the head of Venezuela as of January 2026. It followed a U.S. military operation days earlier that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to New York on drug-related charges.

But let’s be clear: no government — Venezuelan, American, or international — recognises Trump as president of Venezuela. The interim leadership in Caracas belongs constitutionally to Delcy Rodríguez, as ordered by Venezuela’s own Supreme Tribunal of Justice, and even that role is contested.

The closest historical analogue is Juan Guaidó’s 2019 claim to Venezuela’s presidency. Guaidó, leader of the opposition National Assembly, swore himself in as acting president amid a constitutional crisis, and the US, along with many Western states, recognised him instead........

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