So, it was a war for oil after all.<\/p>\n
On social media Friday, President Trump announced that the United States and Venezuela have struck an agreement for \u201cTHE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY.\u201d<\/p>\n
The whole thing is appalling, starting with the all-caps.<\/p>\n
I have no love for the Venezuelan regime, run by, in Trump\u2019s words, \u201cthe Highly Respected Interim President\u201d Delcy Rodriguez. But this is a \u201cdeal\u201d that Rodriguez couldn\u2019t refuse. We invaded her country, abducted her criminal-dictator boss, Nicolas Maduro, and made her our satrap.<\/p>\n
According to The Wall Street Journal, Venezuela and the U.S. will work through two intermediaries to get the oil flowing. The Venezuelan partner is Alejandro Betancourt, head of North American Blue Energy Partners. He\u2019s been investigated, though not charged, for money laundering in Spain and Switzerland. He\u2019s also one of the most famous \u201cBolichicos,\u201d a nickname for the young businessmen who\u2019ve gotten rich from their ties to the socialist, murderous, criminal dictatorship (it\u2019s a portmanteau of \u201cBolivarian\u201d and \u201cBourgeois\u201d).<\/p>\n
And who is the American partner? Well, the Pentagon, of course. Trump couldn\u2019t get American oil companies to invest billions in Venezuela\u2019s decrepit oil industry. (At a White House meeting in January, Darren Woods, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, infuriated the president by describing Venezuela as \u201cun-investable.\u201d) So, the commander in chief tapped the Pentagon\u2019s Office of Strategic Capital to take a 35% stake in Betancourt\u2019s firm, securing the right to buy 20% of all production \u201cat cost.\u201d Created in 2022, the OSC was intended to use loans and loan guarantees to help develop vital industries. Now, it\u2019s the primary backer of the \u201chistory\u2019s biggest oil deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see how legal this is. You can be sure someone will be going to court over it. After all, the U.S. government will be working with a criminal regime, under implausible statutory authority, to buy oil at below-market rates while undermining our own oil producers.<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t shed many tears for the oil companies, even if the administration pulls this off. Then again, I don\u2019t think they will, at least not any time soon. Trump boasts that this will help lower gas prices. Maybe. Someday. But even this scheme\u2019s biggest boosters acknowledge that if it all goes swell, it will still take years to get the relevant oil fields producing, and years to retrofit American refineries to take Venezuela\u2019s subpar oil. So, if Trump thinks prices at the pump are coming down before the midterms, or even during his presidency, he should think again.<\/p>\n
But my primary objections to this imperial smash-and-grab are constitutional and moral. The constitutional problem is pretty straightforward. Trump lied to Congress and to the public about this scheme from the get-go. He claimed Operation Absolute Resolve was a mission by law enforcement to capture Nicolas Maduro. The same indictment for Maduro and his wife included members of the regime. We left them in place, because law enforcement was a pretext.<\/p>\n
Roughly 11 hours after apprehending Maduro, Trump boasted that the U.S. was going to \u201crun the country\u201d by working with the criminal regime. Did Congress authorize that? Congress definitely didn\u2019t authorize the Pentagon to get into the oil business.<\/p>\n
Trump has a long, long history of claiming that America should \u201ctake the oil\u201d from countries we go to war with. And months before this deal, he bragged that oil revenue from Venezuela has \u201cpaid for the attack many times over\u2026. I always used to say, \u2018To the victor belong the spoils.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Ironically, this phrase comes from a defense of the corrupt spoils system in U.S. politics, not some time-(dis)honored rule of war.<\/p>\n
The Constitution does not empower the president to unilaterally launch wars, even brief ones, for the purpose of seizing or extorting a nation\u2019s wealth. It\u2019s worth noting that although the fighting in Venezuela was brief, the Iran war is dragging on. And that was his plan for Iran, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had my choice, what would I like to do? Take the oil. Because it\u2019s there for the taking,\u201d Trump told reporters in April. He also posted on social media: \u201cWith a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the whole democracy thing. The administration vowed to restore Venezuelan democracy, eventually. We were supposed to be liberators bringing Venezuela freedom, according to the White House. Now, we\u2019ve signed a \u201ccentury-long\u201d agreement with a corrupt, unelected, murderous regime. Do you think Trump is going to be in any kind of hurry to bring democracy to Venezuela now?<\/p>\n
Jonah\u00a0Goldberg\u00a0is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His column is distributed by Tribune Content Agency.<\/p>\n
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