Trump’s Venezuela Coup Shaped by Chevron Executive
Trump’s military operation in Venezuela, which resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, was shaped by former Chevron executive Ali Moshiri, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal. Moshiri advised the CIA months before the Trump administration’s attack and takeover, recommending that Venezuela’s then-Vice President Delcy Rodríguez replace Maduro rather than opposition leader Maria Machado, despite Republican supporters backing Machado as the clear successor.
Hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump dismissed the idea of Machado leading Venezuela, claiming she lacked “support or respect within the country”—a position consistent with Moshiri’s earlier counsel to the administration. Moshiri left Chevron in 2017 and ended his consulting relationship with the company in 2024, yet his influence over Trump’s decision directly affected Venezuela’s political future and economic direction.
Investigative journalists identified a clear conflict of interest in this arrangement. Antonia Juhasz wrote that Moshiri, functioning as a CIA informant, “told Trump to ditch democracy and go for Rodriguez ’cause she’d secure the oil.” Kenneth Vogel of The New York Times noted that the secret CIA assessment backing Rodríguez was based on Moshiri’s advice and that “the oil company stands to profit from Trump’s decision to heed that advice.”
The revelation prompted stunned reactions from major media figures. New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen described the story as one that “pulls back the curtain on how the world really works,” while journalists compared the arrangement to the 2005 film Syriana, which dramatized corporate manipulation of foreign policy. The disclosure demonstrates how Trump’s abuse of power extends to allowing corporate interests to determine military operations and regime change.