President Donald Trump’s oil deal with Venezuela is less of an agreement and more of a robbery, top foreign policy analyst David Rothkopf argues.
Appearing on The Daily Beast Podcast, the political expert explained that what the president called the “biggest oil deal in world history” is a prime example of the Trump administration’s “mafia government” abusing its power.
“It behaves much like the government does in the Kremlin, where it takes what it wants, it doesn’t care about the law, it breaks the laws, it enriches the people at the top, it doesn’t care about anybody else,” Rothkopf said. “You don’t agree with them at home? You don’t get support, we’ll try to prosecute you. Don’t agree with them overseas? We’ll invade you, we’ll attack you, we’ll cut your aid.”
“And in this particular case, it also ties into the corruption that lies at the core of that, which has left Trump billions and billions of dollars richer after a year in office,” he continued.
“The Venezuela deal is a perfect example because he wants us to celebrate it. Except the following,” he added. “It’s not a deal because he doesn’t have the ability to make the deal, and he’s stealing the oil.”
Trump, 80, announced Friday on Truth Social that the U.S. would take control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil—a fifth of the country’s reserves—as part of a joint partnership with a private Venezuelan company North American Blue Energy Partners.
The agreement comes months after U.S. military forces seized former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to extradite him for prosecution on narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges. The White House has worked closely with Maduro’s successor, former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, in the aftermath.
“Remember, the United States is getting this oil because we attacked Venezuela, and at gunpoint, are saying, ‘Hand over the oil.’ That’s illegal under international law,” Rothkopf explained. “It’s also, by the way, illegal under Venezuelan law, which has a constitution that says you can’t hand over oil reserves to a foreign government.”
The political expert noted that the deal was likely illegal under U.S. law as well, as it funnels money into the government and the Pentagon without congressional approval.
“We don’t know how much money out of this Trump or his buddies are gonna make,” he said. “All we know is that we have the most corrupt government in the history of the United States, with a president who seems committed to monetizing the presidency.”
“He’s trying to take essentially what is piracy—exactly the same kind of war of aggression Russia has waged in Ukraine—and steal the patrimony of another country because he thinks maybe he could make some bucks off of it,” he concluded. “It’s a crime; it’s not a deal.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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