We Are in Charge: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump’s Claim to Power over Venezuela in CNN Transcripts

Abstract

In early 2026, the international community witnessed a radical shift in United States foreign policy manifested through military operations and administrative takeover in Venezuela, actions which were legitimized through linguistic constructions disseminated by global media. This study critically examines how the discursive structure of the statement “we’re in charge” operates textually to construct political legitimacy, and how CNN’s narrative practices function socially to reinforce United States hegemony. Employing Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework, this qualitative study analyzes a single official CNN transcript dated January 5, 2026. The findings reveal that at the micro level, directive lexical choices and material process verbs (e.g., “in charge” and “run”) function as performative acts that symbolically erase local legal authority and foreclose contestation through absolute modality. At the meso level, CNN functions as an agent of the manufacturing of consent through intertextual amplification and crisis framing, transforming acts of aggression into a narrative of moral rescue. At the macro level, the analysis identifies a neo-imperialist ideology manifested through the commodification of sovereignty, whereby the state is reduced to an economic asset particularly oil reserves subject to resource-based domination by a global superpower. The study concludes that Donald Trump’s use of language constitutes a successful strategy of linguistic hegemony that reconfigures traditional notions of sovereignty into a new form of intervention framed as “global risk management,” widely legitimized through discursive power.