Donald Trump would like Americans to foot the bill for Big Oil’s takeover of Venezuela – his agenda first, America comes second

President Trump has floated a massive idea that could see US taxpayers footing the bill for American energy giants to completely overhaul Venezuela’s oil infrastructure. This is a huge, game-changing proposal, and it certainly feels like a massive gift to Big Oil. Frankly, I’m not thrilled about the idea of everyday Americans subsidizing corporate expansion on this scale.

The president acknowledged that setting up new oil production in Venezuela, especially after US forces abducted its leader Nicolás Maduro, would require “a lot of money.” He made it clear that while oil companies would be the ones spending the cash up front to repair the infrastructure for extracting and shipping the oil, the government could step in to make them whole.

President Trump explained exactly how he sees this working out, according to The Guardian. He said, “A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue.” I’m guessing it’s not by stealing more oil tankers.

Trump will always put his friends before the people, and MAGA doesn’t get it

The administration’s goal is ambitious: they want to dramatically increase the output of heavy, unctuous crude from Venezuela, which sits atop the world’s largest reserves. This particular type of crude is perfect for the specialized refineries here in the US. Right now, Venezuela produces only about 1.1 million barrels of oil daily, which is a huge drop from the 3.5 million barrels it produced back in 1999 before the domestic industry was taken over by the previous government.

Bringing production back up to those peak levels will require years of work and, crucially, billions of dollars in investment. To kick off this monumental task, the administration is wasting no time. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright is planning to meet with representatives from three major players: Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil.

These crucial meetings are scheduled for later this week at the Goldman Sachs Energy, Clean Tech & Utilities Conference in Miami. The White House is projecting confidence that the industry is ready to go. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers stated that the administration believes, “All of our oil companies are ready and willing to make big investments in Venezuela that will rebuild their oil infrastructure, which was destroyed by the illegitimate Maduro regime.”

However, there seems to be a serious disconnect between President Trump’s public statements and the reality on the ground. Over the weekend, the president claimed he had already held meetings with “all” the US oil companies both before and since Maduro was seized. Sources close to the three biggest firms, however, say that simply isn’t true.

One source told reporters, “Nobody in those three companies has had conversations with the White House about operating in Venezuela, pre-removal or post-removal to this point.”

When asked if the administration had briefed any of the oil companies before the military operation, President Trump clarified his position. He said, “No. But we’ve been talking to the concept of, ‘what if we did it?’” He added that the oil companies were “absolutely aware that we were thinking about doing something,” but that they were not told the operation was happening.