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Trump Admits He Wants To Take Venezuela’s Oil – and Give It to US Corporations

Donald Trump imposed a naval blockade on Venezuela and admitted he wants to take its oil and give it to US corporations: “We had a lot of oil there. They threw our companies out, and we want it back”.

GeoPolitical Economy, By Ben Norton 19 Dec 25

Donald Trump has openly admitted that he wants to take Venezuela’s oil. Top US officials have made it clear that this is a key reason for their war on the South American nation.

Trump declared an illegal naval blockade of Venezuela on December 16. The US government aims to prevent Venezuela from selling oil to China, to starve Caracas of export revenue.

The Trump administration is also illegally blocking Venezuela from importing crucial goods, including the light crude and chemicals needed to process and refine its own heavy crude.

The US goal is to bring about an extreme crisis in Venezuela — to “make the economy scream” — hoping it leads to regime change.

Trump says US corporations should control Venezuela’s oil

On December 17, a journalist asked the US president, “Is the goal of the blockade of Venezuela regime change?”

Trump replied:

It’s just a blockade. We’re not going to let anybody going through that shouldn’t be going through.

You remember, they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil, from not that long ago. And we want it back.

Another reporter then asked Trump, “On Venezuela, sir, you mentioned getting land back from Venezuela. What land is that?”

The US president stated:

Getting land, oil rights, whatever we had. They took it away, because we had a president that maybe wasn’t watching. But they’re not going to do that. We want it back.

They took our oil rights. We had a lot of oil there. As you know, they threw our companies out, and we want it back.

Trump imposes a naval blockade on Venezuela

In these questions, the journalists were referencing a December 16 post on Trump’s website Truth Social, in which the US president announced “A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela”.

These US sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry are unilateral coercive measures and do not have the approval of the UN Security Council, and are therefore illegal under international law………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

US naval blockade cuts off Venezuelan exports and imports

The Trump administration launched a war against Venezuela in September. As of December 19, the US military had killed more than 100 people in strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

Throughout this war, the Trump administration gradually escalated its aggressive tactics, seeking to destabilize and overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

In December, the US government started to seize oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, in blatant violation of international law.

When Trump was asked what the US government would do with the Venezuelan oil in these tankers, his response was, “We keep it”. This is piracy…………………………………………………………………………………….

The US government’s imperial strategy: “make the economy scream”

In other words, Trump is bringing back the infamous US imperial strategy known as “make the economy scream”. This phrase originated with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger………………………………………………………………………………………………..

US coup attempts, illegal sanctions, and economic war on Venezuela

This is precisely the imperial strategy that the US empire has used to try to topple Venezuela’s left-wing government, over more than two decades……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The coup attempt that Trump initiated in 2019 failed. So in his second term, under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump launched another putsch.

This time, they used the US military to try to directly force President Maduro from power. https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/12/19/trump-take-venezuela-oil-us-corporations/

December 22, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, SOUTH AMERICA, USA