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Ex-President Donald Trump has declared that the Venezuelan government will be “turning over” around $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude to the United States. This flagship negotiation would divert supplies originally bound for China while allowing Venezuela avoid deeper oil production cuts.

“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be overseen by me, as the President of the United States of America, to guarantee it is used to help the citizens of Venezuela and the United States!” Trump proclaimed in an online post.

Authorities in Venezuela and the state company PDVSA have not commented on the supposed agreement.

Context: A Blockade and a Capture

Venezuela currently has millions of barrels of oil aboard tankers and in storage tanks that it has been blocked from exporting due to a naval blockade enacted by the Trump administration. This campaign of pressure culminated in the ouster of Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by United States troops over the weekend.

While senior Venezuelan officials have described Maduro’s capture a abduction and charged the US of seeking to take the country’s enormous oil reserves, Tuesday’s declaration is seen as a powerful signal that the interim government is responding to Trump’s demand to open up to US oil companies or face the risk of further military incursion.

A Separate Agenda: Acquiring Greenland

Meanwhile, Trump and his team have stated they are “looking into” a “range of options” in an attempt to acquire Greenland. A presidential statement on Tuesday noted that using the US military to do so is “on the table”.

“President Trump has made it perfectly clear that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s essential to thwart our rivals in the Arctic region,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “The president and his team are considering a set of options to pursue this critical foreign policy goal, and of course, employing the US military is one available path at the commander-in-chief’s discretion.”

Leavitt’s comments came as the heads of state of key European powers voiced resistance against Trump’s long-running desire to take over the Arctic territory.

Further Significant Events

• Family Assistance Blocked: The Trump administration is withholding more than $10 billion in federal child and family aid funds to five major states. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cited issues regarding fraud and misuse.
• Sealed Records: The Department of Justice has released a tiny fraction of the much-discussed Epstein files, a court filing has shown. Democrats have stepped up criticism of the administration’s “unlawful actions” for keeping records under seal.
• Immigration Crackdown in Minnesota: The administration has dispatched more immigration agents to Minnesota, in an extension of growing pressure against the state and its immigrant populations. Immigration officials called it the agency’s “biggest-ever operation”.
• Greenland’s Firm Rejection: Greenland’s Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, urged Trump to relinquish his “notions of seizing” Greenland and accused the US of “wholly inappropriate” rhetoric. The Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, previously warned that a US attack on a NATO ally would mean the “collapse” of the military alliance.
• Resources Diverted from Trafficking: Democratic senators claimed in a letter that the Trump administration has stopped trying to combat exploitation and trafficking as it reassigns thousands of law enforcement personnel to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Oil Price Movement

The implications of the US intervention in Venezuela sent ripples through the markets. The price of oil declined after Trump’s announcement, with traders anticipating more supply hitting the market. West Texas Intermediate fell by over 1.5%, while the international benchmark, Brent crude, also slipped.

Political Backlash

The idea of an invasion against Greenland encountered immediate cross-party opposition from US legislators. Democrat Senator Ruben Gallego vowed to introduce a resolution to block such a move. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he did not think military action was “suitable”, and other Republican senators warned it could lead to the “collapse” of NATO.

The wider diplomatic landscape remains fraught, with the US simultaneously engaging in high-stakes disputes in Venezuela and the North Atlantic while carrying out controversial domestic policy shifts.