President Donald Trump’s latest bizarre claim about U.S. interests in Venezuelan oil reserves stunned analysts on Tuesday.
Over the weekend, Trump approved a raid that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The two were swiftly brought back to the U.S. to stand trial on narco-terrorism and weapons charges, and have pleaded “not guilty.”
In the aftermath, Trump claimed the U.S. would “run” Venezuela for an undetermined amount of time and that U.S. oil companies would make big investments in Venezuela’s infrastructure. The comments led many to believe that the Trump administration arrested Maduro for the sake of securing his country’s oil.
Trump appeared to reinforce that thought on Tuesday when he posted on Truth Social that Venezuela would be sending the U.S. “30 to 50 Million barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil.” He also directed Energy Secretary Chris Wright to “execute” the deal immediately.
Vice President JD Vance posted a picture of Trump’s Truth Social post on X, and generated some strong reactions from political analysts and observers in the process.
“I’m hoping this is a lie, because if true, the US has devolved to high-tech Somali pirates,” David Frum, staff writer for The Atlantic, posted on X.
“We all watch Landman and know this is like 1 week of output from the Permian Basin alone,” ex-GOP speechwriter Tim Miller posted on X. “Good luck, hope nobody else gets killed stealing it.”
“The howls that the Maduro capture was really all about the oil will grow even louder now,” Fox News Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume posted on X.
“Neat. We are pirates now,” Sean Fluharty, a Democratic state delegate in West Virginia, posted on X.
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