President Donald Trump fumbled his way through a very public senior moment while meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House on Friday, when he read aloud a private note handed to him by the secretary of state.
Trump was chairing a roundtable with the heads of more than a dozen major oil companies, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips, and was slipped a personal note by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in what appeared to be an effort to get the president back on track.
“Marco just gave me a note,” the 79-year-old announced to the crowd, then proceeded to read it to everyone: “‘Go back to Chevron. They want to discuss something.’ Go ahead, I’m going back to Chevron,” Trump said, waving the note in front of him.
“Marco. Thank you, Marco. Go ahead,” the president said, patting Rubio on the back.
Mark Nelson, vice chairman of Chevron, appeared to be caught off guard by the blunder. He asked the president if he had a question for him.
“Yes, go ahead Marco, what was it—what are you saying here?” Trump replied, squinting at the paper and evidently uncertain of what he wanted the chairman to discuss.
While the embarrassing scene played out, Rubio and Energy Secretary Chris Wright appeared to be smirking and cringing, as the 79-year-old president blew up their subtle communications attempt.
It was just one of several gaffes Trump made during the meeting, which was convened to encourage U.S. oil companies to invest in the president’s plans for Venezuela.
The White House is reportedly seeking $100 billion in investment to revive the South American country’s decayed oil-extraction infrastructure following the shocking abduction of President Nicolás Maduro last week.
Trump kicked off the meeting by gushing about his new $400 million ballroom, then suddenly wandered over to the window behind him to take a look at the ongoing construction.
“Unusual time to look, but I figure we might as well do it,” he noted.
Later in the meeting, when taking questions from reporters, Trump said that no one in history deserved the Nobel Peace Prize more than he did.
Roughly 10 minutes later, the “President of Peace” threatened to annex Greenland from the NATO-allied country of Denmark.
“If we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way,” Trump said.
Since the Jan. 3 invasion of Venezuela, the Trump administration has threatened similar military action in Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia.
Trump made little effort to hide that his intention in deposing Maduro was to seize and profit from the petrochemical wealth under Venezuelan soil.
“The oil companies are going to go in, they are going to spend money, we are going to take back the oil, frankly, we should’ve taken back a long time ago,” Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago shortly after his illegal military operation.
“A lot of money is coming out of the ground, we are going to be reimbursed for everything we spend.”
America has since seized five oil tankers that were traveling to or from Venezuela, with Trump bragging on social media that he is planning to sell the captured oil directly.
While the meeting with oil bosses was described as “constructive” by the White House, no commitments were secured. Executives stressed the structural issues with Venezuelan operations and emphasized the monumental effort it would require to render their systems operational.
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods described Venezuela as currently “uninvestable.”
