President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the United States would seize and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, declaring that he would personally control the proceeds, just days after a U.S. military operation captured President Nicolás Maduro and placed the country under temporary American control.
President Donald Trump announced the initiative in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter. He said the arrangement had been made with Venezuelan “Interim Authorities”.
The statement read in full: “I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America. This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States! I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately. It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
DONALD J. TRUMP
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”
The move signals a swift transition from military intervention to economic control, fulfilling Trump’s promise that Venezuela’s vast oil reserves would help fund U.S. oversight of the country.
In a press conference Saturday following Maduro’s capture, Trump said the U.S. would “run the country” during a transition and that major American oil companies would move in to revive its crippled energy sector.
“We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the interests of Venezuelans in mind,” Trump said Saturday.
Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but years of mismanagement, corruption, and sanctions have left its production in ruins. The seizure of this stockpile—and Trump’s assertion of direct control over the revenue—marks an unprecedented step in U.S. foreign policy, effectively treating Venezuela’s sovereign resources as contested assets under American stewardship.
The announcement drew immediate condemnation from remaining Maduro loyalists and several foreign governments. Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who has assumed the role of interim president in Maduro’s absence, denounced the oil transfer as “plunder” in a televised address Wednesday.
“They kidnap our president and now they steal our oil,” Rodríguez said. “This is not assistance—it is piracy.”
International reaction has been sharply divided. Allies such as Argentina’s President Javier Milei praised the U.S. intervention, while Mexico, Brazil, Russia, and China condemned it as a violation of international law and national sovereignty.
Legal scholars in the U.S. have raised constitutional concerns over Trump’s declaration that he would personally control the funds generated from the oil sale. Typically, seized foreign assets are managed through Treasury Department mechanisms or placed into blocked accounts subject to congressional oversight.
“The President is claiming a degree of personal financial discretion over billions in foreign state assets that is without precedent in modern American law,” said constitutional scholar Dr. Evelyn Reed of Yale Law School. “This blurs the line between national policy and personal prerogative in a manner that invites judicial challenge.”
Logistical hurdles also remain. While U.S. forces control key strategic sites and the Venezuelan military has largely fragmented following Maduro’s capture, operational control over oil infrastructure is uneven.
The plan to use storage ships to transport millions of barrels of oil to the U.S. would require secure port access and stable production—neither of which is currently guaranteed.
The White House said Wednesday that Energy Secretary Chris Wright is coordinating with the Department of Defense to secure oil facilities and begin the transfer. No timeline was provided.
Discussion about this post