One of Donald Trump’s top GOP critics in Congress urged the president’s “America First” supporters to “wake up” after the strikes on Venezuela and hinted that other countries could be targeted.
Rep. Thomas Massie has been one of the few Republicans to object to the president targeting the South American country.
As has happened with many of Trump’s actions since returning to office, GOP lawmakers have been hesitant to speak out, instead insisting they need to learn more, but not Massie.
“Wake up MAGA,” he wrote on X. “VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it’s about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for.”
It came after the Trump administration carried out strikes and captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to face charges in the U.S.
At his press conference on Saturday, Trump claimed the U.S. would “run” Venezuela and insisted. U.S. oil companies would go in.
The president repeated that the White House was “in charge” of the country while speaking to reporters on Sunday and argued the U.S. needs “access to the oil and other things.”
In a separate post on Sunday, Massie wrote, “It’s not American oil.”
He warned that “lives of US soldiers are being risked to make those oil companies (not Americans) more profitable.”
He also suggested, based on the president’s Saturday press conference, that the administration had worked with U.S. oil companies before the attack to line up developing oil reserves, “yet they couldn’t be bothered to consult Congress.”
Chevron remains the only major U.S. operator in Venezuela, as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips left in 2007 when the government nationalized assets.
In response to the Daily Beast’s inquiry over the weekend, Chevron released a statement that it “remains focused on the safety and well-being of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets.” It did not address future plans in the country but said it will “continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.”
A spokesperson for ConocoPhillips said it was monitoring developments but insisted it would be “premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments.”
Trump’s comments late Sunday about Venezuela and oil undermined his Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s own comments early Sunday, insisting the U.S. was “not running—it’s running policy” and instead suggested the U.S. would keep pressure up on its new leadership through a “quarantine” on oil exports.
Democratic lawmakers have been fiercely critical of the Trump administration. They’ve accused top officials of lying to their faces that the actions against Venezuela were not about regime change, leading up to Saturday’s strike.
When it comes to Trump’s base, there have been more questions, as the path forward regarding Venezuela’s fate threatens to split the MAGA world.
On his podcast, Trump ally Steve Bannon raised whether the strike on Venezuela was “harkening back to our fiasco in Iraq under Bush.”
The president has run for office since 2016 on a vow to avoid U.S. foreign intervention and to withdraw from wars.
Outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is resigning from Congress on Monday after a massive public breakup with Trump, argued on Meet the Press on Sunday that it was the “same Washington playbook” that doesn’t serve the American people. She claimed Venezuela was not in “our neighborhood.”
“America First should mean what was promised on the campaign trail in 2024,” Greene said. “So my understanding of America First is strictly for the American people, not for the big donors that donate to big politicians, not for the special interests that constantly roam the halls in Washington, and not foreign countries that demand their priorities put first over Americans.”
