America’s War Chest in Waiting |
The abduction of a foreign head of state could be considered an act of war. In Washington, it became an opening bid. After the dramatic kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration made clear that U.S. energy companies would reenter Venezuela to harvest its oil, supporting company profits and Venezuelan government revenues. While oil and gas executives have been wary to commit to major investment, the U.S. government has a newly reinvigorated tool that could help facilitate an agreement.
Last month, Congress laid the groundwork to build a massive foreign investment bank, even though the move got little coverage. The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, passed in December 2025, authorized the little-known Development Finance Corporation to invest up to $205 billion of public dollars to support projects aligned with U.S. foreign-policy and national security interests. By contrast, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) budget, before the Trump administration’s efforts to gut it, was roughly $35 billion.
The abduction of a foreign head of state could be considered an act of war. In Washington, it became an opening bid. After the dramatic kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration made clear that U.S. energy companies would reenter Venezuela to harvest its oil, supporting company profits and Venezuelan government revenues. While oil and gas executives have been wary to commit to major investment, the U.S. government has a newly reinvigorated tool that could help facilitate an agreement.
Last month, Congress laid the groundwork to build a massive foreign investment bank, even though the move got little coverage. The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, passed in December 2025, authorized the little-known Development Finance Corporation to invest up to $205 billion of public dollars to support projects aligned with U.S. foreign-policy and national security interests. By contrast, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) budget, before the Trump administration’s efforts to gut it, was roughly $35 billion.
The Development Finance Corporation, or DFC, was created during the first Trump administration with bipartisan support and a narrow mission: use public financing to speed the development of emerging economies. The December reauthorization expands that mandate dramatically, turning development finance into a flexible instrument of statecraft meant to advance U.S. foreign policy and strengthen national security more broadly.
That expansion lands in a moment of genuine danger. This White House has shown an extraordinary willingness to........