UPDATED: Donald Trump’s Mar-al-Lago press conference announcing that the U.S. would “run” Venezuela was pure Yankee theater of the absurd, writes Joe Lauria.
Trump arriving at press conference Saturday to announce attack on Venezuela. (White House screenshot)
Updated with news of possible deal between U.S. and Venezuelan vice president to allow Maduro to be seized and to let her run the country. Rubio says U.S. not at war with Venezuela.
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
The administration of George W. Bush expended huge effort trying to convince the U.S. population and the world that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was not about oil.
Instead it was supposed to be about Saddam Hussein threatening his neighbors; about him acquiring a nuclear weapon and possessing other WMD; and of course it was about that old standby: bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East.
Anything but about seizing Iraq’s oil.
Yesterday morning at his over-the-top Florida mansion, Trump came right out and said it: his military attack on Venezuela was about the oil.
Not about drug smuggling, or a stolen election, but about “stolen” U.S. oil.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said.
“Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been.”
According to Reuters, Venezuela was producing as much as “3.5 million barrels per day in the 1970s, which at the time represented over 7% of global oil output. Production fell below 2 million bpd during the 2010s and averaged some 1.1 million bpd last year or just 1% of global production.”
What neither Trump nor Reuters mentions is the impact U.S. sanctions under Trump have had on the Venezuelan oil industry. They began to intensify in 2019 to restrict the state-owned oil business’ access to U.S. financial markets, to block its assets, and to limit its exports.
Trump also didn’t mention that Venezuela holds about 17 percent of global oil reserves or 303 billion barrels “ahead of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) leader Saudi Arabia, according to the London-based Energy Institute,” Reuters reported.
He absurdly said U.S. oil companies would be going in not to enrich themselves, but to make Venezuelans prosperous and free. “We want peace, liberty, and justice for the great people of Venezuela,” he said. “We will make the people of Venezuela rich, independent, and safe.”
To do that he vowed an absurd, open-ended U.S. occupation of the country, which could mean killing a lot of would-be free and rich Venezuelans.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” he said several times. And if the U.S. met resistance he vowed to strike Venezuela even harder. “We are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so.”
He vowed this stronger strike even though he said that “overwhelming American military power, air, land, and sea was used to launch a spectacular assault” on Friday night.
He absurdly boasted it “was an assault like people have not seen since World War II. This was one of the most stunning, effective, and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history.”
Trump omitted plenty in his performance yesterday. There is no more clarity today, especially about how the U.S. will “run” Venezuela and who the U.S. will try to install in the long term.
Trump dismissed the previously presumed replacement, Maria Corina Machado, the controversial Nobel Peace Prize winner who had called for U.S. military intervention.
Trump said, “I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Is Venezuelan VP in a US Deal?
For the moment, Venezuela’s constitution has put Vice President Delcy Rodríguez,in charge. At yesterday’s press conference, Trump said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had had a lengthy phone conversation with Rodríguez, and that she was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
There’s been much speculation that the U.S. bribed senior political and military figures to ensure there was no resistance to the U.S. attack, which involved 150 U.S. aircraft. No anti-aircraft systems were engaged and Trump said the U.S. suffered no casualties or loss of equipment.
But after she was later sworn in as acting president yesterday, Rodríguez delivered a fiery speech denouncing the U.S. attack, while insisting that Maduro is still Venezuela’s legitimate leader, even as he sits in a federal jail in Brooklyn.
Rodríguez demanded Maduro’s release. She said the U.S. attack “had one objective: Regime change in Venezuela” to “allow for the capture of our energy resources, our mineral resources, our natural resources.”
Rodríguez said:
“We are ready to defend Venezuela. We are ready to defend our natural resources that must be for national development. … The extremists who have promoted armed agression against our country, history and justice will make them pay. … We will never again be slaves.”
Or was she in on the operation, as Trump suggested? Were her defiant remarks to the nation part of the theater? The Miami Herald has suggested that she was indeed in on a deal with the U.S., which will allow her to rule for the time being.
The Daily Telegraph in London reports in an article titled, “Secret meetings point to inside job to take down Maduro,” that the UAE mediated between the U.S. and Rodriguez, a 56-year old lawyer with ties to the oil industry, which could help U.S. oil companies back into the country.
The Telegraph quotes Francisco Santos Calderón, Colombia’s former vice-president, as saying: “I’m absolutely certain Delcy Rodríguez handed [Maduro] over. All the information we have, you start to put it together and say: ‘Oh, this was an operation in which they handed him over.’”
Perhaps worried that Rodríguez won’t hold up her end of the deal, Trump on Sunday issued a threat to her. He told The Atlantic magazine: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”
In her speech to the nation, which could be sincere or theater, Rodríguez blamed Israeli involvement in the seizure of Maduro. She said the world was shocked that “Venezuela is the victim and target of an attack of this nature, which undoubtedly has Zionist undertones. It is truly shameful.”
She did not elaborate. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar praised the U.S. kidnapping of Maduro hours after it occurred. Venezuela has been a leading critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and has close ties and sells oil to Israel’s mortal enemy Iran.
Another US Regime Change
Whoever ultimately assumes power, Trump made clear he intends the U.S. to have a hand in choosing the new leaders of yet another foreign, sovereign state — something the U.S is an old hand at doing.
“We can’t take a chance at somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind,” he said.
“Had decades of that. We’re not going to let that happen,” he said. “We’re there now. And what people don’t understand, but they understand as I say this, we’re there now, but we’re going to stay until such time as the proproper transition can take place.”
In other words, Trump said the U.S. is going to “run” the place even though all U.S. troops have withdrawn after the operation. And without installing a friendly government he won’t get the oil. Is VP Rodriguez that friendly government?
What happened in the middle of the night Saturday is just Act I of this sordid drama.
Bush never openly said the U.S. would “run” Iraq. It just did. And badly.
The U.S. government can’t even run the United States very well. But the Yanquis persist in thinking they can run countries whose cultures they don’t understand – or care about.
Trump says he’s ready to deploy U.S. ground forces if necessary to “run” Venezuela, making them potential targets in an insurgency of armed citizens.
“We’re not afraid of boots on the ground,” Trump said. “We don’t mind saying it, but we’re going to make sure that that country is run properly.”
The way Bush “ran” Iraq “properly,” leading to civil war and ISIS and the U.S. essentially getting kicked out?
“We’re going to run the country right,” Trump insisted. “It’s going to be run very judiciously, very fairly. It’s going to make a lot of money. We’re going to give money to the people. We’re going to reimburse people that were taken advantage of. We’re going to take care of everybody.”
Rubio, Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. (White House screenshot)
‘They Stole Our Oil’
Then Trump got down to the heart of the matter, the real motive for the U.S. action.
“We couldn’t let them get away with it. You know, they stole our oil,” he said.
“We built that whole industry there and they just took it over like we were nothing and we had a president that decided not to do anything about it. So we did something about it. We’re late but we did something about it,” he said. “We’re going to take back the oil that frankly we should have taken back a long time ago.”
This U.S. regime change operation bears a resemblance to one 72 years ago in Iran, when the U.S. and Britain overthrew the elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, in 1953 because he dared nationalize Iran’s oil industry.
Twenty-three years later, Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez nationalized Venezuela’s oil industry on Jan. 1, 1976. This was well before Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro.
European and U.S. oil companies that had been operating in the country were compensated with about $1 billion without dispute. After partial privatization, Chavez re-nationalized parts of the industry in 2007, which led to disputes that were resolved by World Bank arbitration. Venezuela has had difficulty paying.
But the ideas that Venezuela “stole” “our” oil, or that U.S. sanctions have had nothing to do with the reduction of Venezuela’s output are worthy of Eugène Ionesco.
Here’s another absurd thing: the U.S. director of National Intelligence is a woman who made her political career on vocal opposition to the very long history of U.S. regime change wars — especially in Latin America.
In the midst of this latest U.S. regime change operation Tulsi Gabbard is completely silent and marginalized. “Who cares what she thinks?” Trump asked about her a couple of months ago.
Isn’t it absurd that she is still in the job, unable to influence Trump? Isn’t it high time she makes a stand and resign right now as a protest against Trump’s recklessness?
With Congress trying to mobilize a vote against the military operation and pro-regime-change newspapers like The New York Times blasting the Venezuela adventure as “illegal,” “warmongering” and “latter-day imperialism,” Gabbard would emerge a hero if she just stood up and quit.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
Please Donate to CN’s Winter Fund Drive 
“Trump’s Teatro Yanqui del Absurdo” is an eyes wide open, up-close look at the WH’s *“Junkyard” Dawgs, full of piss & vinegar. Rock’n an insatiable appetite for money via their rules based order, “Kill, first. Think, later.” Money, power, peril, piss & vinegar, a lethal combination.
…. “Some clinical psychologist that knows one million times more than I do will dispute what I’m going to say. But high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.” Wiles said Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality.” He “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.” Susie Wiles, WH Chief of Staff.
Memo To: Susie Wiles in The WH of Voodoo
Subject: WH’s “ringing in” 2026, “Happy Hour?” Color it bloody f/orange!”
“Hey, Susie,” DJTrump bingeing on ‘power’ drinks is beyond f/dangerous; AND, “the enemy within” is the WH’s “Happy Hour” The Hors d’War ring in 2026 intoxicated, impaired, full of inhumanity. “Bottoms Up!” Eh? A bottle of “Power” mixed w/sleep deprivation & 2 jiggers of the WH’s “best” bloody OJ, color Wiles’ *“Junkyard Dogs” bloody-f/orange.
The WH Hors d’War, drunk on power. “Not good. Buhlieve me. Not good.” Imo, it’s time to send DJ “the Big $hot” Trump some personalized “golf” balls, i.e., ShankMeister, Whiff Man, Divot Dude, F/Punk, Killer; &, Marco Rubio, Trump’s caddy, can keep on carrying Trump’s balls, in his “golf” bag. TY.” Sincerely, LeoSun.
AND, TY, Joe Lauria for a sfo “shakedown’” of Trump’s, hand-picked, Director of National Intelligence. Imo, the US Congress oughta demand “Proof of Life”… Tulsi Gabbard, please, show up, raising your right hand, “Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth & nothing but the truth?” …. Apologies…Gabbard’s a “No Show!” &, the US Congress doesn’t give a rabid, right wing, republican/democrat’s jackass, “What Tulsi Gabbard thinks.”
…. 5.28.25: “It is time, plain and simple, to give up the thought that anything good is to come out of Trump’s next three and a half years.” Patrick Lawrence @ hxxps://consortiumnews.com/2025/05/28/patrick-lawrence-the-white-house-as-playpen/…. 8 months later, everybody’s “live streaming” the perils of DJTrump’s “power” binge! “Elect a Clown. Get a Circus.”
* hxxps://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/trump-susie-wiles-interview-exclusive-part-1
TY, Joe Lauria, Patrick Lawrence, CN, et al. Onward & Upwards. TY.
MAGA – with stolen oil?
When will the us have enough oil? After Iraq’s, syria’s, Lybia’s oil. Oh yes Greenland for other natural resources.
After ruining europe, with North Stream etc all to sell oil/gas to europe? To clear the us deficit? Or to rule the world?
Starmer probably doesn’t sleep well now, because after POTUS’ announcement during his first term visit to uk that he wants the NHS to be taken over by us companies – if starmer refuses they might also wake him in the middle of the night …..
I was wondering how we were going to deal with the national debt and counter BRICS. Now I know.
I find Trump so disgusting I can’t even look at a picture of him much less hear the sound of his voice. According to him everything he does is big, beautiful and the best. No one could do it better. He does it “bigly”. He is the Peace president – more like the “piece” president where he seeks to get a piece of every country he wants. He needs to focus on the U.S. I live in California and our roads and freeways are badly in need of some serious work. I imagine we’re not unlike the rest of the states.
Let’s always remember the accomplishments of the Bolivarian Revolution:
Mortality rate, poverty rate, illiteracy, child malnutrition ALL down since the Chavez/Maduro social justice heroes took the helm 30 years!
They also routinely lambasted the Zio entity at every opportunity.
A report in Counterpunch by Chris Gilbert (Venezuelan academic) gives the best account I’ve seen of the attitudes on the ground in Venezuela. If it is broadly representative of the situation, this is far from over.
So when do we see paramilitary forces descend on the Sackler families’ homes to bring them to justice for real drug trafficking?
“Our oil”!?
Reminds me of a joke I heard in the ’60s from a relative on the reservation. Based on the U.S. TV western “The Lone Ranger.” The Lone Ranger and his Native American sidekick Tonto are surrounded by what appear to be hostile Indians. The Lone Ranger is alarmed and says: “we have to fight them, Tonto. Tonto replies: “what’s this ‘WE,’ white man?!” We, our, same idea.
A declaration all resources south of the border where any U.S. corporation has any interests is “ours.” Furthermore, the U.S. military will be used to enforce that claim. Obviously the neocons’ most delicious fantasy come true. Maybe the more aware D leadership will condemn this, but we the mere people need to remember Biden’s Dept. of State was run by neocons trained by creepy V.P. Dick Cheney. That Trump is crude and blatantly about power doesn’t mean the smooth elite Ivy Ds aren’t also mesmerized by Empire.
It’s a “we” that clearly excludes us, the majority working class and for that matter, anyone among the administrative and professional upper middle class who does not serve the uber wealthy, the financier banksters, or megacorporations. We the masses are no more than economic cannon fodder whose young serve as actual cannon fodder to protect “American” interests. Gen. Smedley Butler was right.
What you say should be obvious. That its not to many good people is the tragedy.
Outstanding history and analysis!!
I just read about an hour or so ago that Little Marco is satisfied with Rodriguez, then I just read that Trump’s threatening her to “do the right thing” or else gibberish. So who knows what Washington has in store as of right now?
As I’ve stated previously, depending on how far Washington intends to push this regime change, the potential is there for an effective years long counterinsurgency made up of some Colombian ELN, former FARC elements, Cuban intel and other left leaning nationalist-populist forces throughout northern South America.
Washington soldiers won’t fare well down there in urban and rural terrain that of course the aforementioned revolutionaries know very well.
It is way past the expiration date for Tulsi Gabbard to redeem herself. She has proven herself to be nothing but a lying opportunist that will say anything and kiss any ass available to further her career. That makes her the worst of the worst.
Exactly! No lies detected! Spot on Ira.
Stay strong!
Did Satanyahus chief butler DJ Trump find any “Hamas and Hizbollah warriors or training camps?
Were special forces from the genocidal regime of israel embedded in the Trumpetian operation?
Thanks to the orange-gutang DJ Trump, the US of A is now the laughing stock of the world.
Apparently, the father of Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was tortured to death by the CIA. Can’t believe she’d be a big fan of the USA.
I certainly hope that Tulsi Gabbard will publicly resign in opposition to the stranglehold of Marco Rubio over the Trump administration, but when one joins any given presidential cabinet, they inevitably seem to end up becoming an inferior version of their previous self at best, or a complete sellout at worst, as the pressures of squaring circles are placed upon them.
One has to ask if the job is that important to her especially since she is being so marginalized.
The real motivation: Venezuela was selling oil to China for yuan.
In a nutshell, yes – threatening the petrodollar and helping devalue it, just as globally, countries are dumping US treasuries as well.
But Chump doesn’t realise that it isn’t as simple as removing one man. He’s incapable of understanding the complex economics of extracting resources and international trade – it’s too much for his feeble mind. It will take a very long time – even if [big IF] the US can steal the oil reserves and ramp up production.
He’s obsessed with optics, his own ego and his ‘legacy’ [history will not be kind to him].
This will just spur BRICS+ on even more, just as the Ukraine conflict has done.
Yes….just read a long analysis of the decline of the petro dollar in a comment on the Charlie Angus web site. Unfortunately, not from Charlie……….but I do think the decline of the Petro dollar spells financial disaster for the American empire…….so deep in deficit have they allowed themselves to go……..depending on said petro dollar to keep them from having to pay the price of living far beyond their means.
“deficit” “national debt” are scare terms used by the right as an excuse to decimate social services. That this is not real is why WMDs and subsidies for the rich are never a problem. A federal govt is not like a household. When a federal government has a debit bookkeeping entry, that money becomes a credit elsewhere. For example, funding for a national highway where a company earns a profit by building it and workers (hopefully, unionized) get good wages.
I especially recommend Steve Keen’s books and YT posts as Rebel Economist. He’s an Australian now living in London. Also his Canadian ally Ty Keynes who posts as Relearning Economics. Or any of the main proponents of MMT.
ingamarie,
I think/know there are other things to trade against (that are not gold) but using those as a basis for trade would entail acknowledging breakthroughs in science and technology we are not allowed to have/develop. This has been true for at least 150 years.
The book “Brave New World” is prescient about this kind of thing: Mustapha Mond (a world controller, yes really called that) says something like, of course besides limiting what the public can read, we limit what technology is allowed. In the novel, even the wealthy well engineered yuppies have limited lifespans; only drugs/treatments that will keep them going until about 40 are allowed.
I used to work at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey. Each year the former ambassador to Africa (not sure which part and forgot his name) would come to California for the Officer’s Training week. He always began his lessons about Iraq (this was before 9/11 and about the first incursion): “It’s not about the oil”. Every time. He said it so often and so emphatically that I figured it WAS about the oil.
August 24, 2010 04:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time
KBR Awarded Contracts by The Republic of Iraq Ministry of Oil
for Grassroots FCC and ROSE© Units at Maissan Refinery
HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–KBR (NYSE:KBR) today announced that it has been awarded two contracts by the Republic of Iraq Ministry of Oil through the South Refineries Company. KBR will provide licensing and basic engineering services for the construction of Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) and Solvent Deasphalting (SDA) units at the planned grassroots Maissan Refinery in Maissan, Iraq. Work on the projects is expected to commence immediately.
“We look forward to forging a solid and sustainable relationship with the Ministry and South Refineries Company.”
KBR will license its FCC Technology for an anticipated 47,500 barrels per day (BPD) FCC unit and its Residuum Oil Supercritical Extraction (ROSE®) technology for a 45,000 BPD SDA unit. The FCC unit will be delivered under a joint marketing alliance between KBR and ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (EMRE).
“These awards mark the first wins for KBR’s Technology Business in Iraq and provide KBR the opportunity to introduce two of its leading refining technologies into an important, emerging market,” said Tim Challand, President, KBR Technology. “We look forward to forging a solid and sustainable relationship with the Ministry and South Refineries Company.”
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And, contracts already awarded by Israel for the gazan oil fields, and tankers full of Syrian crude oil keep on transporting the spoils to the west. Yeah, it’s not about the oil !
tRump can’t tie his shoes without help.
Russell Vought , and the Heritage Foundation on behalf of 2025 are calling the shots.
quote:
“fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said.
What country ?
How did it “badly broken”?
I ask “Bigly”?, of you.