The conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday responded to President Donald Trump’s latest rhetoric about turning Venezuela into the 51st U.S. state with a pointed question.
“Move over Greenland and Canada,” the board wrote, referring to Trump’s previous musings on the U.S. somehow taking over both the semiautonomous Danish territory and America’s northern neighbor.
“President Trump told Fox News Monday that he is ‘seriously considering’ making Venezuela the 51st state. Hmmm. Does that mean Venezuela would have to hold an election, like America’s current 50 states?”
The editorial highlighted just some of the numerous complications surrounding Trump’s proposal to control the South American country and its major oil reserves, and it didn’t even mention how it would be extremely difficult to carry out under the U.S. Constitution.
The Journal, which has been a repeated thorn in Trump’s side over his handling of the U.S. economy during his second term, noted that acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez “wasn’t elected” but instead inherited the role from Nicolás Maduro following the U.S. military operation in January that led to his capture. Maduro is currently awaiting trial in New York City on drug trafficking charges.
Rodríguez has not set an election date, it added.
The board also pointed to Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado, who gave her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump but who faces arrest or “great risk of assassination” if she returns home, as she plans, later this year.
