Trump Makes Key Confession About Venezuela’s Oil, Hours After Attack |
Just hours after President Donald Trump bombed Venezuela and abducted its leader, Nicolás Maduro, he began talking about the Latin American country’s oil industry.
Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves on the planet, with 303 billion barrels worth of crude, or about a fifth of global reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. And that fact has clearly been at the top of Trump’s mind.
Appearing in a Fox News interview Saturday morning, Trump was asked what he sees for the “future of Venezuela’s oil industry.”
“Well, I see that we’re going to be very strongly involved in it, that’s all. I mean, what can I say? We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it.”
Trump on Venezuela’s oil industry: “We are going to be strongly involved in it.” pic.twitter.com/blwdc78DSp
This wasn’t the first time that Trump has admitted his war with Venezuela is at least partly motivated by oil. Earlier last month, the U.S. military seized two Venezuelan oil tankers. Asked what would happen to the oil, Trump replied, “we’re going to keep it,” then added: “Maybe we will sell it, maybe we will keep it. Maybe we’ll use it in the Strategic Reserves. We’re keeping the ships also.”
President Donald Trump announced in the early hours of Saturday that the United States had bombed Venezuela, the most oil-rich country in Latin America, and abducted its president, who is now being flown back to the United States.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” he wrote on Truth Social at 4:21 a.m. “This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.” He said he will give more details on the attack in a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida at 11 a.m.
Maduro is expected to be flown to New York, where he will face charges in Manhattan federal court.
“Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York,” Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on X Saturday morning. “Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States. They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
Trump did so without the approval of Congress, which is supposed to sign off on all acts of war.
“Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change,” Democratic Senator Andy Kim said after the bombing. “I didn’t trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress. Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war.”
Shortly after the U.S. attack, the Venezuelan government accused Washington of an “extremely serious military aggression.”
“Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the extremely serious military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and people,” the Venezuelan government said.
The president is apparently taking foreign policy lessons from one of his political nemeses, Hillary Clinton—at least, that’s what one of his biggest first-term acolytes seems to believe.
Trump’s former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon accused his old boss of rifling through Hillary Clinton’s playbook, during a Friday episode of his War Room podcast. Bannon claimed that the president’s recent threats of violence against Iran were practically identical to State Department operations during the Obama administration.
“Aren’t people teasing right now that Samantha Power and Hillary Clinton must’ve somehow gotten invited to the Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve celebration, because the president coming out today saying, ‘We’re locked and loaded’—isn’t that straight from the Samantha Powers and Hillary Clinton playbook?” said Bannon.
BANNON: Aren’t ppl teasing that Samantha Power and Hillary Clinton must’ve gotten invited to Mar a Lago’s New Year’s Eve party, because the president coming out saying “we’re locked and loaded” sounds straight out of their playbook. pic.twitter.com/renrst0N55
Trump warned Iranian officials Friday morning that the United States was ready to defend locals protesting the country’s economic conditions, posting on Truth Social that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.”
At least three people have been reported dead and 17 injured as Iranian security forces clashed with crowds of protesters in the western province of Lorestan. Still more deaths have been reported in several other cities........