On June 21, 2020, Joe Biden posted the following on X:
Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro. As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy.
Here's the actual post.
Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 22, 2020
As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy. https://t.co/eUt28UxyXS
Let's just say that here we are five and a half years later, and that didn't age well.
Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima. pic.twitter.com/omF2UpDJhA
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 3, 2026
The fact is that no one has been tougher on Nicolás Maduro than Donald Trump; even in the days leading up to Maduro's arrest on Saturday, the Trump administration had already:
- Put a $50 million bounty on this man's head.
- Blown up all of his little drug boats.
- Issued sanctions upon sanctions upon sanctions on him and his family and his business interests.
- Declared his government a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
- Surrounded him with the largest military build-up the Caribbean Sea has ever seen.
- Seized his oil tankers with plans for more to come.
- Verbally threatened him on more than one occasion.
- Imposed secondary tariffs on countries importing Venezuelan oil or providing it with weapons
The list goes on.
But what did Joe Biden do when he was president for four years? I know you're thinking "sleep," but I meant regarding Maduro. He — or whoever was in charge —basically held Maduro's hand and gave him everything he wanted. I wrote a lot about this a couple of weeks ago, but I feel like I can't say it enough, especially in the wake of this X post going viral on Saturday. I will never shy away from the opportunity to point out what a disaster the Biden administration was.
Remember how over this past summer, Donald Trump, with the help of El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, convinced Maduro to hand over all U.S. citizens he was holding hostage, along with some Venezuelan political prisoners and take back his deportees, most of whom were Tren de Aragua members?
That's not how Biden rolled. When Biden was president, the U.S. did favors for Maduro in exchange for American hostages in the form of handing over his narco-nephews who were in federal prison serving 18 years for narco-trafficking. Here's more:
In 2015, Maduro's nephews, Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, who are widely known throughout the entire Western Hemisphere as the narcosobrinos or narco-nephews, were arrested by our Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for attempting to smuggle 800 kilos of cocaine into the U.S. They were extradited to New York, and Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, accused the United States of kidnapping the young men and imperialism.
A year later, they were convicted on narco-trafficking charges, and in 2017, they were each sentenced to 18 years in federal prison.
In 2022, however, the Biden administration agreed to release them back to Maduro in exchange for seven American citizens he'd been holding hostage for about five years, including five Citgo executives and a U.S. Marine.
That was just 2022. In 2023, Maduro signed an agreement with Venezuelan opposition promising free and fair elections in 2024. The Biden administration was pleased with this, so it eased sanctions on the country's oil, gas, and gold industries, which put money right into the regime's pockets.
But Biden didn't stop there. Later in the year, he released Maduro's "chief money launderer, his money man, his bag man" as Marco Rubio calls him, Alex Saab. Here's more on that:
[Saab] was arrested in Cape Verde when his plane stopped to refuel en route to Iran. In 2021, he was extradited to the United States and was held in Miami on money laundering charges. Before he even stood trial, Biden released him on several conditions, including that he leave the U.S., never come back, and never commit any crimes against our country. In exchange for Saab, Maduro freed more American hostages.
Guess who didn't hold free and fair elections in 2024?
The narco-nephews went back to drug trafficking and Saab went on to serve in Maduro's illegitimate government as Minister of Industry and National Production. All was well for Maduro. The United States looked like it was run by buffoons.
And that, my friends, is a perfect example of why we're respected on the world stage again. Biden bowed down to dictators. Trump captures them.
Would you consider becoming a PJ Media VIP member and supporting conservative media? Y'all, I know it's annoying, but I promise you it's so cheap — less than $20 for the entire year. In addition to supporting us, you gain access to exclusive stories and podcasts, the comments section where you can interact with our team and other readers, an ad-free experience, and much more. Click here to get started. We can't wait to have you.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member