President Trump announced a major development Tuesday night saying Venezuela’s interim government has agreed to turn over 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States, a move that he said will boost energy supplies, help stabilize prices for American consumers, and pour revenue back into both U.S. and Venezuelan coffers.
Trump posted the announcement on Truth Social, saying, “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!”
🚨 President Donald J. Trump announces 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. pic.twitter.com/08qI7MvCpk
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 7, 2026
He also said he instructed Energy Secretary Chris Wright to begin execution of the plan immediately. The oil, Trump explained, will be brought from storage ships straight to U.S. unloading docks so it can be sold on the open market without delay.
This development comes just days after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a bold operation in Caracas, flying them to the United States to face narco-terrorism charges in federal court. Maduro and Cilia Flores have pleaded not guilty.
In explaining U.S. goals, Trump has made revitalizing Venezuela’s broken oil sector a centerpiece of the policy. He told reporters that major American oil companies will be invited in to invest “billions of dollars” into restoring infrastructure that has deteriorated over years of mismanagement and socialist control.
That’s not just rhetoric. Trump indicated the U.S. economy and Venezuelan people both benefit when energy flows freely again, and that American firms with experience in the Venezuelan oil patch are ready to step up.
Critics, of course, don’t see it that way. Some international voices and U.N. officials have blasted the Maduro capture and oil transfer as heavy-handed and possibly illegal under international law. There’s mounting global debate about whether this U.S. military action and subsequent economic moves are legitimate or overreach.
But Trump and his supporters argue this is about energy security, economic benefit, and undoing decades of misrule. They point out that Venezuela has among the largest crude reserves in the world and that for years those resources have been poorly managed or siphoned off by corrupt networks.
In Trump’s telling, this isn’t exploitation, it’s a practical step toward economic revival — for both Venezuela and the American consumer who has been squeezed at the pump. In his view, now that the government in Caracas is aligned with a new interim authority friendly to U.S. interests, it makes sense to tap into those resources in a way that benefits both nations.
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