Attacking Venezuela is a Repeat of 1930s History w/ Richard Wolff
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Trump, Steven Miller, and other top administration officials are claiming that they are “running Venezuela,” taking over the country and its vast oil reserves. That’s not true, the Venezuelan government remains intact, but they are imposing a full naval blockade on the country in an effort to completely shut down Venezuela’s economy. The Trump admin also intends to conquer Greenland by one means or another, and are declaring ownership of the Western Hemisphere.
Is the Trump administration’s open rejection of international laws – which were designed to prevent another World War – just rhetoric? Or does it represent a larger shift in U.S. and thus global politics?
Brian Becker is joined by Professor Richard Wolff, author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work -- find his work at rdwolff.com.
Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Donald Trump and his top aides are insisting that they are, quote, running Venezuela, close quote, |
| 0:09.0 | that they are taking over the country and its vast oil reserves. |
| 0:14.2 | They also intend to conquer Greenland by one means or another in order to accomplish their plan of, as they put it, |
| 0:22.2 | complete American dominance over the Western Hemisphere, close quote. |
| 0:28.9 | We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded |
| 0:35.1 | impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, |
| 0:39.4 | but an imperative necessity. We are excited to have Professor Richard Wolfe join us again for our regular weekly segment, |
| 1:09.9 | where we talk about the biggest stories related |
| 1:12.4 | to the economy, the state of the working class, and the crimes of big business. I'm your host, |
| 1:18.1 | Brian Becker. The Socialist Program brings you content several days a week. Thanks to the support |
| 1:25.0 | of our patrons at patreon.com forward slash the socialist program. |
| 1:30.6 | We appreciate all of your support and encourage you if you're not yet to become a patron today. |
| 1:37.3 | Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. |
| 1:40.7 | He's the author of many books, including Understanding Capitalism, which is available at Democracy at Work. He's the author of many books, including Understanding Capitalism, which is available |
| 1:46.3 | at Democracy at Work. Info. Professor Wolf, happy new year. Welcome back. |
| 1:52.5 | Thank you very much. Very glad to be here. Well, Richard, you tweeted, |
| 1:57.3 | Europe tried to take Russia's money to pay for its war against Russia in Ukraine. It failed. |
| 2:07.0 | Trump plans to take Venezuela's oil to pay for the U.S. attack on and, quote, running Trump's |
| 2:13.7 | words, Venezuela. How 21st century imperialism tries to finance itself. I mean, that's an |
| 2:22.1 | important and interesting question, and I want to spend enough time today to have you explain |
| 2:28.9 | your view on this. But before we do, I want to get started with a clip. It's about a minute long. It's on CNN. |
| 2:37.9 | Stephen Miller on Monday being interviewed by Jake Tapper, crowing about Venezuela, croing about |
... |
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