Five Ways Democrats Are Trying to Turn America into Venezuela

President Donald Trump has bluntly stated repeatedly since his ascension to the White House in 2016 that “Democrats want to turn America into Venezuela.” As we approach the November presidential election, this maxim, which many dismissed as hyperbole, is proving more true than most conservatives realized. Here are five ways the American left’s current rhetoric and policies are eerily reminiscent of Venezuela’s collapse into communist oppression.

1. Fomenting a Class War to Pass a Wealth Tax

 Among the most jarring instances of Biden’s descent into third-world socialist antics is his flagrant tax rate dishonesty.

In social media posts, speeches, and even official White House reports, the Biden administration has claimed that the wealthiest Americans pay a mere 8 percent average tax rate. “You know what [billionaires’] average tax rate is?” Biden posted on X in 2022. “About 8%.”

But as economic commentator Carol Roth noted in a recent thread on X, the White House concocted this figure not based on tax records or income levels, but rather on highly spurious factors like unsold stock, which Roth describes as a “made-up proxy of a wealth tax”—or part of an intentional dishonesty campaign meant to create a false impression of tax rates paid by American billionaires.

Roth continued: “They want you to believe it so you give them permission to pass a wealth tax, which they will promise won’t be used on you, but eventually will.” In reality, the top 1 percent of earners in the U.S. account for more than 40 percent of all tax dollars collected.

Biden’s effort to lie about the wealthy to advance his political agenda is strikingly similar to rhetorical maneuvers employed by former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, who routinely fomented class conflict and accentuated class-based divisions—including his 2010 declaration of “economic war” on Venezuela’s upper classes.

“It’s pure, engineered class warfare and intentional misinformation,” Roth writes of Biden’s tactics. “They want a class war to pass a wealth tax. As Americans, what recourse do we have against these lies? That is why we must spread the truth.”

2. Skyrocketing Crime and Mounting Gang Presence

 In addition to its manufactured class conflict, Venezuela has long been known for its rampant crime rates, gang presence, and breakdown of law and order.

Now, thanks to Joe Biden’s open border policies and failure to protect American sovereignty, many of Venezuela’s most vicious criminals and gang members are infiltrating the United States and descending upon American communities.

Perhaps most shockingly, Biden’s own FBI recently admitted that one of the world’s largest criminal organizations, Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, has now made its way into the United States. A 2022 report from the Department of Homeland Security further revealed that, under Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela has been “purposely freeing inmates—including some convicted of murder, rape, and extortion.” Consequently, in 2023, the murder rate in Venezuela fell to a 22-year low—likely thanks in large part to “years of massive migration.”

As the Miami Herald put it, Tren de Aragua “has brought kidnapping, drug dealing, human trafficking, contract killings, and extortion along with it.”

Moreover, since Biden took office, at least 646,000 illegal aliens from Venezuela have crossed America’s southern border. While not all of these individuals are looking to spread crime and chaos, enough are to give Americans legitimate reason for alarm and outrage.

Biden could very well be setting the stage for a wave of crime, violence, and bloodshed that puts even Venezuela to shame.

3. Persecution of Political Opponents

 Another hallmark of Venezuela’s totalitarian regime is its routine persecution, suppression, and imprisonment of political opposition. Under the leadership of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan government has arrested opposition leaders, disqualified political opponents from running for office, persecuted and censored journalists and activists critical of government leadership, and forced political opponents into exile.

For many Americans, these authoritarian tactics will sound all too familiar. For much of the last two years, the Biden administration and left-wing prosecutors have waged full-scale lawfare against President Donald Trump—now Joe Biden’s presumptive opponent in the 2024 presidential election—as well as his staff, allies, and supporters.

From the infamous 2022 raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate to the left’s staggering four indictments of the former president based on absurd legal theories, it’s no secret that Democrat Party leadership is now openly relying on the same tactics employed by some of Venezuela’s most ruthless leaders.

4. Rigging Elections and Suppressing the Will of Voters

 The Maduro regime in Venezuela has long been accused of manipulating elections to retain political power and quash dissent. Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, for instance, has been repeatedly criticized for its lack of independence and impartiality. Opposition parties have alleged that the Council systematically favors the Maduro regime by way of implementing arbitrary rules that disadvantage opposition candidates.

Prior to the seismic wave of voting irregularities that dominated the 2020 presidential election, many Americans likely assumed these forms of election-rigging could never happen in the United States. But during the 2020 cycle, those assumptions began to shatter.

Four years ago, several swing states blatantly changed their election laws to favor Democrats (including Pennsylvania, which violated its own state Constitution), Big Tech colluded with the FBI to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story, and the media did everything in its power to ensure a Trump defeat.

The wheels are now in motion for a similar attempt to keep Trump from power even if he is poised to win at the ballot box. As Rolling Stone recently reported, Biden’s “inner circle have been drawing up meticulous plans and creating a large legal network focused on wargaming a close election finish” for years—including, according to the report, “preparing legal strategies for scenarios involving recounts that would, in the words of one Biden official, ‘make Florida in 2000 look like child’s play.’”

Whether or not the conservative movement is able to withstand these efforts could have massive implications on the future of American electoral politics—and will determine whether or not the left’s war on our nation’s democratic institutions will ultimately triumph.

5. Inflation and the Unaffordability Crisis

 Yet another way the United States is adopting characteristics of third-world nations like Venezuela is its mounting inflation and unaffordability crises.

Since Nicolás Maduro was elected in 2013, his economic track record has been defined by heavy government intervention, price controls, and currency manipulation, which have exacerbated inflation and further contributed to already faltering economic conditions.

For instance, Maduro has overseen a huge currency devaluation scheme that has raised prices, eroded the purchasing power of the bolívar, and supercharged inflation. He has similarly imposed price controls on food and oil, generating enormous shortages and inefficiencies in the distribution of goods. The Maduro regime has also been marked by a notable lack of transparency in government spending.

Unfortunately, the U.S. has experienced similar patterns of economic decline during the Biden years. The Biden administration has printed and borrowed trillions of dollars the nation doesn’t have, spurring historic currency devaluation. Biden has also ushered through several gargantuan spending packages that have allocated federal funding to left-wing political pet projects, many of which have also been overshadowed by a lack of fiscal transparency. And inflation has reached its highest level in decades, with the costs of basic necessities like gas, food, and other groceries going through the roof.

Though the United States has fortunately not yet reached the catastrophic political, economic, and social conditions of Venezuela, under our current trajectory, the road to third-world socialist status is not nearly as far away as many Americans might think.

Although the looming November presidential election will be significant for many reasons, chief among them is that it will provide voters with an urgently needed opportunity to shut down the left’s escalating efforts to replace American democracy with Venezuelan authoritarianism, endemic political corruption, and third-world socialism.

Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.