Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that Venezuela would become the 51st state of the United States as the president displayed an oil tanker he said contained “a million barrels of oil” from the country, nine months after he impeached its president.
At a campaign rally in Corpus Christ, Texas, Trump touted a U.S. oil deal with Venezuela, which the United States attacked in January, capturing its longtime leader, Nicolás Maduro.
Trump says the deal – reached with the South American country’s interim government, backed by the Trump administration – will cover “billions” of barrels of oil.
Venezuela “will become a prosperous country, and who knows? Maybe one day soon it will become a prosperous 51st state,” Trump said from the podium Tuesday. “It’s possible.”
Venezuela is among a growing list of countries and territories that Trump has talked about acquiring, including Greenland, Canada and Mexico.
As tens of millions of Americans prepare to vote in next week’s midterm elections, Trump’s aggressive foreign policy — including his controversial war on Iran and tariffs on goods from much of the world — have tested his popularity, according to opinion polls, with approval ratings falling to record lows.
But on Tuesday, the president sought to cite the Venezuela operation as an example of his success. Fuel prices in the United States, which soared after the start of the war in Iran, increasing pressure on the cost of living for Americans, “will soon fall,” he said in a message on social networks.
“We are celebrating the greatest oil victory in history,” he said at the rally, pointing to the ship off the Texas coast. “The oil supplied is supplied to the United States at zero cost to the American taxpayer. »
Moments before Trump took the stage in Texas, he asserted on his Truth Social platform: “By unleashing energy dominance from Alaska to Venezuela, I have made the Western Hemisphere the energy capital of the world. »
The deal has also drawn skepticism as critics complain that the Trump administration has failed to push a transition to democracy in Venezuela, where elections have not been held since Maduro was arrested by U.S. forces and taken to New York to face criminal charges after a raid on his Caracas residence.
The urgency of the oil deal stems from Trump’s choice to go to war with Iran in February. Gas prices soared across the country after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, a passage for 20% of global oil supplies.
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