The Trump administration announced Wednesday that the U.S. has successfully secured $100 million worth of Venezuelan gold after the ouster of dictator Nicolas Maduro.
“There hadn’t been a shipment of precious metals between Venezuela and America in over 20 years,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said during a conference in Houston. “At the end of the two days, we were able to bring home $100 million of gold — physically, the gold.”
The gold will apparently go towards commercial and consumer uses, according to CNBC.
The comments come as the U.S. deepens ties with interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who spoke virtually to a crowd in Miami Wednesday to court American investors eyeing her country’s precious metals and minerals.
Her chief political opponent in Venezuela, democratic reformer Maria Corina Machado, was at the Houston conference where Burgum gave his remarks.
After capturing former dictator Nicolas Maduro and extraditing him to the United States to face federal drug trafficking charges, President Trump has promised a “golden age” for Venezuela.
More recently, he called for the Caribbean nation of roughly 30 million people to become America’s 51st state.
Much of the president’s interest in the country is related to its bountiful natural resources.
Beyond having the world’s largest estimated crude oil reserves, at approximately 303 billion barrels, Venezuela also hosts some of the richest gold deposits in the region.
According to a State Department report, the country mined an average of $2.2 billion each year over the past five years. 1,000 square miles of forest land was destroyed as a result, the New York Times reported.
Earlier this month, the U.S. issued a license allowing for transactions with Venezuela’s state-run gold mining company, Minerven.
More than just an economic interest, the president has long made his taste for gold known.
At the White House, Trump has displayed a series of gold objects on the mantle of the Oval Office. Gold has also appeared on trimmings, portrait frames, and coasters.
Most ostentatiously, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved a design for a new commemorative coin engraved with Trump’s image.
Though it is illegal for living people to be featured on American coinage, the White House argues the Treasury Department has the authority to mint the piece.
Critics, like singer Jack White, have called the style—or obsession—vulgar and gaudy.
For all the emphasis the White House has placed on gold, both stylistically and economically, the war in Iran has sent gold futures down ten percent after a record-breaking surge in 2025.
