An oil tanker docked at El Palito port in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, in December. U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to make money off Venezuelan oil faces moral, political and logistical problems, Chris Arsenault writes.Matias Delacroix/The Associated Press

Chris Arsenault is chair of the journalism program at Western University and a former reporter covering Venezuela.

When it comes to the country with the world’s largest oil reserves, U.S. President Donald Trump didn’t mince words on why U.S. commandos seized Venezuela’s president. “They stole our oil,” Mr. Trump said.

Put aside for a moment clear violations of international law from U.S. actions and the fact “our” oil somehow ended up under Venezuela’s soil.

A picture Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social of deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro handcuffed and blindfolded in a tracksuit aboard a U.S. navy ship conjures images of other oil-rich autocrats deposed by Washington and its proxies: Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Neither of those interventions ended well.

A photo of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro handcuffed and blindfolded on a U.S. navy ship has echoes of past interventions by Washington into oil-rich countries.@realDonaldTrump/Reuters

Mr. Trump’s plan to “have our very large United States oil companies” go and “spend billions of dollars” to “fix the badly........

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