(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) The typically anti-Trump publication Newsweek asserted on the cover of its Aug. 7-14 newsstand edition that “Trump was right” in an article about his military action to arrest ex-Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Newsweek's front cover. This is real. pic.twitter.com/T45jXNktwf
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 31, 2026
The cover illustration showed the U.S. president straddling the Gulf of America with one leg in the U.S. and another in the South American nation. It was a nod to a famous 1892 caricature of business magnate Cecil Rhodes, who helped to bring civilization to Africa but is, like Trump, now considered to be a controversial figure for his efforts.
Incase some did not know, this is based on a famous caricature.
From Wikipedia:
The Rhodes Colossus is an editorial cartoon illustrated by the English cartoonist Edward Linley Sambourne & Mads and published by Punch magazine in 1892. It depicts the English business magnate Cecil… pic.twitter.com/hFqY116L0f— Sonny Bobiche (@SonnyBobiche) July 31, 2026
Newsweek’s article on Trump likewise offered reluctant praise, although still couched and qualified with double-edged insults.
“The most tangible change for Venezuelans is that repression has diminished,” said Venezuelan opposition leader Gaby Arellano. “It has not disappeared, but it has decreased.”
The article noted that it was the U.S.’s ability to provide humanitarian aid that, thus far, had offered Venezuelans the greatest upside from newly normalized relations. A pair of massive earthquakes on June 24 killed at least 5,000 Venezuelans and did an estimated $20 million in damage.
“American aid is flowing into the country daily through channels the Chavista government spent years blocking,” noted Newsweek, referring to previous dictator Hugo Chavez, who first turned the oil-rich nation into a socialist wasteland in the early 2000s. “And by some measures Venezuelans trust the United States more now than they did before everything underneath them shook.”
Trump has also told Americans that the Venezuelan operation would help open up the free flow of oil reserves and keep rival superpowers such as China out of the Western Hemisphere.
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
