President Donald Trump is carrying out a long-standing ambition to seize another country’s oil, according to a new analysis.
Writing for The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait argued Tuesday that Trump’s new oil agreement with Venezuela represents the culmination of an idea the president has promoted for at least a decade: The United States should take control of an adversary’s natural resources after defeating it.
“Trump has shown time and again that his obsessions, even his most childish and comically sinister-sounding ones, are often quite earnest,” Chait wrote.
In Venezuela, the writer added, Trump is now “finally fulfilling a lifelong scheme.”
Trump announced the agreement last week and claimed Venezuela’s oil was a gift to the American people. But Chait argued that the arrangement more closely resembles payment extracted through force.
“This is a surprisingly generous offer from a country that is much poorer than the United States and, like most countries, disinclined to hand over its wealth to foreigners as a present,” The Atlantic writer told readers Tuesday.
The deal follows Trump’s capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro and the installation of Maduro ally Delcy Rodriguez to govern in his place. Trump has also said he expected the United States to run Venezuela for years, Chait noted, before dropping another warning.
The oil agreement, he added, could make democratic elections in Venezuela less likely.
“Exposing Rodríguez’s regime to free and fair elections creates a high risk of electing a government dedicated to unwinding Trump’s deal, which gives both her and Trump a strong motive to postpone such voting,” Chait wrote.
The deal was reportedly designed to bind future Venezuelan governments and make it difficult to reverse.
“Trump’s favorite brand of partner combines disdain for the law and democratic norms with an absolute dependence on Trump,” he concluded.