Jeffrey Sachs Rattles the U.S. Establishment

 By David Starr

 

Jeffrey Sachs has the United States establishment pulling out hairs over his positions on the Venezuela-U.S. conflict, the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Palestine war etc. Sachs has been direct, and correct, on these issues.

 

Sachs is president of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN), and has served as a UNSDSN Advocate under Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Further, Sachs taught about 20 years as a Harvard University professor, and graduated from there, earning his B.A., M.A, and Ph.D. degrees. 

 

So, Sachs has a lot of intellectual prowess to back up his assertions. 

 

Sach’s views on Venezuela strongly defy the narrative of the U.S. establishment. He is vehement about his opposition to the United States, under the Trump regime, with its provocations, hostilities, and all-out murder of people who, riding in small boats, are probably innocent of attempting to funnel narcotics into the United States. For one thing, the boats were too small to bring in a load of narcotics. Drug smugglers would import large amounts.

 

So, again, Trump and his fellow Nazis are lying when they try to find justification to commit hostile acts against Venezuela. Regime shill Pam Bondi announced a $50 million reward for the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro based on Maduro being involved with drug smugglers and narco-terrorism without any evidence; just like the individuals who were on board those small boats were accused of carrying narcotics, the regime not having any evidence of such an act.

 

In fact, a small amount of drugs goes into the United States from Venezuela, far smaller amounts than other nations in the region. Does that mean the Trump regime is going to commit hostile acts against those other nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, accusing them of being “narco-terrorists”? 

 

On the Jeffrey Sachs Official site on YouTube, Sachs points out the moral bankruptcy of the U.S. empire with its fabricated accusations and hostile actions. And the responses not only of Venezuela, but also of Russia and China.

 

Further, in August of 2025, Sachs was interviewed on a CGTN broadcast about which nation is the biggest threat to peace in the world, and of course, he accurately asserted the United States.

 

Columbia University’s publication, Sundial, published an article by Nikos Mohammadi, a student who is majoring in American Studies, and is a staff writer for Sundial. Mohammadi starts off with the attempts by establishment sources to discredit Sachs. “He was called a ‘Kremlin mouthpiece’ in The Hill. During the Biden administration, a State Department-linked NGO listed him as one of the figures ‘repeating Russian propaganda.’ He was condemned by over 300 peers in economics departments across the country for his position on the Russia-Ukrainian conflict.

 

“Jeffrey Sachs is no stranger to controversy.”

 

From an interview with Tucker Carlson to the left-leaning Common Dreams to Chinese state media CGTN and Qatari state media Al Jazeera, Sachs has spread his message far and wide. 

 

Sachs, however, as an economist, advised the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank (which are dominated by the U.S. empire), various foreign governments, including Poland and Russia after those countries changed. For both the latter, Sachs promoted shock therapy economics, which was devastating to many people in those countries. 

 

Mohammadi called Sachs “a peace advocate” but adding that “he is certainly no conservative.” Sachs did hope that Trump would apply diplomacy in the Russia-Ukraine conflict with the goal of ending it. But given Trump’s erratic behavior, that was not realistic.

 

Mohammadi writes of Sachs, “Does aligning with Trump on Ukraine make him a conservative? Does writing for CGTN make one a dictator-lover and a hater of America? I’m certainly weary of this simplistic worldview of elementary school teachers forcing kids to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.”

 

But Mohammadi quotes Sachs, who appears to lump neoliberals with the Left, writing, “during the Biden years, the so-called left in Washington and the mainstream media were almost all pro-NATO enlargement, and in favor of continuing the war in Ukraine. The Biden Administration was also complicit in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. So, we can ask, where was a truly progressive and anti-war left?”

 

Sachs, whether he knows it or not, is writing about those in the U.S. establishment who are certainly not Left or even anti-war. Further, there was and is a truly progressive and anti-war Left which regularly protested, and protest, on college campuses and in the streets. Surprising that Sachs overlooked this.

 

But, regardless, Sachs has come out strongly to oppose U.S. hostility, whether talking about the Russia-Ukraine war, Israel’s attempted genocide against Palestinians, and the conflict with Venezuela. And this has rankled the U.S. establishment.