Donald Trump shared a manipulated image on Truth Social that portrayed him as “Acting President of Venezuela” dated January 2026, including his portrait and the title in a Wikipedia-style format. The actual Wikipedia page continues to list him only as President of the United States, and there is no recognised change to his official titles.
The post appeared on Sunday, about a week after Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was captured in Caracas and flown to New York to face federal charges, actions confirmed by US and other media reports.
Trump said his priority is to guarantee Venezuelan oil production. At the White House last Friday he met with oil executives to discuss investment in Venezuelan infrastructure. ExxonMobil chief executive Darren Woods said investing $100 billion under current conditions was “impossible.” Trump responded that he might exclude Exxon from such plans and said, “We have many who want to do it.”
Trump confirmed he could soon meet Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, he said the US is “getting along very well with the leadership.” Rodríguez has agreed to send between 30 million and 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. Trump also plans to meet opposition leader María Corina Machado this week.
He warned that Rodríguez would “probably face a situation like Maduro’s” if she did not cooperate with the United States. Trump said Maduro “raised his hand and surrendered,” calling it “the right thing to do,” and declined to provide details about Maduro’s first night in the Brooklyn detention centre but expressed confidence in the case overseen by 92-year-old Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, travelling with Trump, said Maduro “chose to defy Trump and the US military and his ass is in jail, where it deserves to be.”
The Wikipedia-style image is not the first manipulated or AI-generated visual Trump has posted. The official Wikipedia site shows no record of such changes, and fact-checking organisations have noted multiple instances of fabricated images circulating online after the US action in Venezuela.