Election Deniers Think the Venezuela Attack Is All About 2020
Election deniers and MAGA influencers are convinced that the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has nothing to do with oil or drug trafficking. Instead, they’re sure it’s all tied to unfounded claims that the Venezuelan government rigged the 2020 election in favor of former President Joe Biden.
President Donald Trump and his administration appear to have reinforced these conspiracy theories.
In the days following Maduro’s capture on January 3, Trump shared a series of posts on his Truth Social platform about election fraud, including those related to Dominion voting systems. Other MAGA influencers have posted about Smartmatic, another election company.
Dominion and Smartmatic, the companies that make voting machines and the software that uses them, became central targets of disinformation campaigns after the 2020 election, with election deniers claiming the machines were part of an alleged plot to elect Biden. These claims have been continually refuted: in 2023, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion nearly $800 million to settle a defamation lawsuit over Fox’s claims about Dominion’s voting machines.
But across the internet, conspiracy theories about these voting companies are back, with election deniers and MAGA loyalists claiming the Venezuelan government conspired with Smartmatic to steal the election. According to some conspiracy theorists, this is part of the reason the United States was forced to invade Venezuela.
QAnon influencer Chad Vivas, who has been photographed with Trump in the past, flagged a Jan. 3 post from Trump about Dominion, writing, “Think the timing is a coincidence? A Venezuelan military intelligence whistleblower has confirmed that the CIA is outsourcing election-rigging technology like Smartmatic and Dominion from Venezuela.”
Trump then shared a screenshot of Vivas’ X post on Truth Social. “Confirmation from the boss,” Vivas wrote in response.
Sean Davis, CEO of Federalist, a conservative magazine, wrote on In response, Ed Martin, a Justice Department attorney, responded by quoting Davis’ message and adding an exclamation point. “Drugs may be an issue in Maduro’s capture, but I think the real reason is that Venezuela was being used to launder deep state election-rigging technology,” Jordan Sather, a prominent QAnon promoter, wrote on his Telegram channel.
The White House did not respond to questions about whether allegations of election fraud factored into the decision to invade Venezuela.
In the days and weeks following the 2020 election, Trump and his legal team pushed wild conspiracy theories in an effort to overturn the vote results, although Trump’s own officials at the time said the election was the most secure in history.
Leading that charge was Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s lawyers who was among the first to argue Venezuela’s involvement. In November 2020, Powell cited anonymous, unverified affidavits from a former Venezuelan military official to claim that the voting company Smartmatic helped the Venezuelan government rig that country’s election, while suggesting that the company did something similar to help Biden win.
In recent days, Powell has celebrated Trump’s action in Venezuela and promoted claims that Venezuela was behind unproven election fraud in 2020, including an X-rated message from Emerald Robinson, who hosts a show on LindellTV, a streaming platform owned by election denier Mike Lindell.
Robinson has continued to promote the Venezuelan electoral conspiracy theory. This week, Robinson claimed she was targeted for making these claims, alongside Powell, Lindell and Rudy Giuliani, all of whom have also claimed the 2020 election was rigged.
