Trump's Venezuela adventure is already a propaganda disaster (Paul Waldman in Aaron Rupar's Public Notice)

[highplainsdem]

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-venezuela-propaganda

For a man who spent a lifetime using showmanship to con people into believing things that aren’t true, Donald Trump has run an absolutely dreadful propaganda campaign in support of his latest foreign military adventure.

Nothing about what just happened in Venezuela is clear — who is now running the country, what will happen from this point forward, or why we did it. We don’t even know what to call it. An invasion, a kidnapping, a coup, a takeover? Who knows? In the long run, it will probably turn out badly for the people of Venezuela and for US foreign policy interests, but it’s already a case study in incompetent public relations.

Let’s be honest: Getting the American people to support a fun little war has never been all that hard, at least at first. When things eventually go sideways they’ll realize it was a mistake, but the beating of the war drums gets their toes a-tapping, and it isn’t long before a majority of them are clapping along. But despite spending months laying the groundwork for the incursion that happened Saturday morning — bombing boats supposedly carrying drugs, moving an aircraft carrier to the region, making an endless series of threats to Nicolás Maduro — Trump never got anything like a majority of the public behind him.

-snip-

Nevertheless, early indications show a public decidedly lukewarm on our latest foreign takeover. A Washington Post poll taken over the weekend showed support for “the United States having sent its military forces into Venezuela to capture Maduro” — which frames the action as just about one man — running a close 42-40 percent against. But when the same people were asked, “Would you support or oppose the US taking control of Venezuela and choosing a new government for the country?” the figure was 45-24 percent in opposition. Similarly, a YouGov survey found 39 percent opposed and 36 percent in support of “the US using military force to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and bring him and his wife to the US to face trial.”

-snip-

Much more at the link...including, unfortunately, a bizarre paragraph suggesting that "the best thing for both Venezuela and America may be for him to declare victory and look for something else to screw up" and then mentioning Trump's "dream of seizing Greenland" - which would be a disaster for Greenland AND a terrible mistake for the US, and probably wouldn't do anything to help Venezuela.

[markodochartaigh]

1. I watched the press conference when Trump mentioned the

"Donroe Doctrine".
I think that Marco Rubio is the best straight man since George Burns or Bud Abbott.