Even Fox News Won’t Hide the Truth About Trump’s Grotesque Oil Deal

Hey, it's Will Salatan from The Bullwork, and I have great news. We, the United States, have just made a fantastic deal with Venezuela. We are going to get 65 billion barrels of their oil. And all we had to do to get that oil was to attack their country and kidnap their dictator and kill a bunch of people and install a new, unelected leader. And then we cut this deal with that leader. Let me take you through this absolutely disgusting transaction and show you just how bad it is. So here is what Donald Trump posted on Friday when he announced the deal. He said, "It more than doubles American oil reserves. American. The oil is going to be American. It's going to be our oil." In fact, Trump said Venezuela is already sending us oil and he wrote this, "One of the things I'm going to do with the Venezuelan oil is fill up the strategic national reserves." He's talking about our national reserves. He's talking about taking Venezuela's oil and putting it in our piggy bank. And he is super excited about the money that we're going to make from all this oil. And here is what he told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. So it's actually trillions of dollars we're talking about, trillions, and it'll come out as fast as possible. So how exactly did we get all this oil? Well, Trump says it's a gift. Here's what he wrote on Sunday. He said it's, quote, "a gift from Venezuela to the people of the United States." That is so sweet, and why did they give us this gift? Well, apparently, it's because we had leverage. Here, listen to Ben Ferguson. He's a right-wing podcaster and he explained it all on Fox News. I think this is a vice president to president to understand. This is a moment in Venezuela where you could have a lot of leverage and you could get saying good and clearly they're willing to play a game now that's big. They're willing to play along because we have leverage. And what's our leverage? Well, maybe it has something to do with this. Here, again, is the truth social post where Trump announced the deal. Do you notice who he credits with cutting the deal? Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth. We attacked Venezuela, and then Trump sent our secretary of war to cut a deal with the Venezuelan government. And that's a super clear message. Give us what we want, or else, oh, Trump's apologists in the media, they swear that this really is a gift because the Venezuelan people really, really want us to have their oil. Listen to Brian Kilmead. Venezuelan people are happy, and our old companies are happy, and the American people eventually would be happy. Really? The Venezuelan people are happy about giving us all that oil at the point of a gun, even Rachel Campos Duffy, who is a Fox News host, who actually knows what's going on in Venezuela. Even she says that's not true. I think in Venezuela, the reviews on this are very mixed, mostly negative among them. Not because they're not happy about the potential economic upsides, but they don't trust Delcy Rodriguez. Delcy Rodriguez is the acting president that we installed to replace the previous dictator Nicholas Maduro. And Campos Duffy is right. Venezuelans don't like Rodriguez, and they don't trust Trump. Check out the latest poll from Venezuela. That yellow bar on the right shows that more than two thirds of Venezuelans said they were outraged that Trump is still supporting Rodriguez. And the poll also found that Trump's approval rating in Venezuela was down 70 percentage points since January. And this poll, which was taken in May, found that more than 70% of Venezuelans said Trump cares mainly about getting oil from Venezuela, not about liberating the people of Venezuela. By the way, if you don't know when you're finding this video on YouTube or through a podcast, I've got a story about this oil deal at the bullwork.com. Most of what we publish is free, but it's good stuff, so we hope you'll subscribe. Check it out. Now, there's a good reason why Venezuelans are skeptical of Trump. It's been eight months since we attacked Venezuela. And what exactly has Trump done to help the people of that country? Here's the answer we got on Sunday from Tommy Piggit. He is the spokesman for the Trump State Department. Just think where we were a year ago when we had this illegitimate Maduro in Venezuela and think of where we are now, that was only possible because of President Trump. Oh, just think of where we are now. You know where we are now? We went from Venezuela being run by an illegitimate dictator, Maduro, to Venezuela being run by Maduro's equally illegitimate vice president, Rodriguez. There were supposed to be elections after we got rid of Maduro, but now Republicans who originally said they supported elections, now they're saying, eh, maybe it can wait. There is Senator Ted Cruz on Meet the Press. Do you believe elections should be held in Venezuela before any oil deal is finalized? And from the beginning, I have been urging, and I believe the administration is working towards this, that there should be free and fair elections before an oil deal is finalized. Inside who the leader should be, I don't think the timing matters as much of the one versus the other. I think the oil deal will move as rapidly forward as it can. So, if we're moving forward with the oil deal, a deal we cut with a government we installed, if we're doing that before we move forward with Venezuelan elections, what does that tell you about the reason why Trump attacked Venezuela? This message is brought to you by hymns. Look, we all have weight loss goals, including towards the tail end of the summer, and now it's time to actually achieve them, weight loss by hymns is designed to support you every step of the way. 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There's an obvious answer, and even the Trumpers are talking about it. Listen to Charlie Hurt. He's a co-host of Fox and Friends. It's a deal that will last for 25 years, and it's going to be really interesting to look back at history when President Trump's memoirs are done, and you look at the past year ever since the arrest of Nicholas Maduro, to find out just how much this part of the Venezuelan oil deal was part of his thinking in taking out Maduro. Oh no, say it ain't so. Trump would never invade a country for oil, would he? Of course he would. He did, and he's proud of it. Look at what Trump said on Monday about Venezuela. We paid for the war many times over, he says. In other words, we made a profit. We took out Maduro, we installed Rodriguez, and we're taking out millions of barrels of oil, and we are making a fortune. Trump says it out loud, and he's not alone. The whole Republican Party is behind him. Listen to Maria Salazar, she's a Republican member of Congress, and she was talking about the oil deal on Monday. I always spoke with the opposition forces in Venezuela, all of them, and I told them that the United States helped them liberate themselves from Maduro, so their reward is for to give benefits. I mean, fair benefits to the oil companies. She couldn't be more clear. She says the benefits should go to the oil companies, and how big should those benefits be, here is what Salazar says we should do. And create a structure where the oil companies in the United States, the oil companies will be benefited for the next 100 years. A hundred years, for taking out Maduro, she wants a hundred years of benefits for American oil companies. This is the way Trump and his allies in Congress think it's always, always about the money. Okay, here's another Republican congressman, Rick Crawford. He is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. For Delce Rodriguez, to take this deal, knowing this was a good deal, a diplomatic deal that was brokered by Secretary Hegseth, Secretary Rubio, and a majority stake for the United States. This is capitalism. Capitalism, this is capitalism. Capitalism is supposed to be about free markets. This deal was not made freely. It was made under obvious, obvious coercion. You heard Crawford, he literally said the deal was brokered by Pete Hegseth, by the Secretary of War. This is us holding a gun, a gun to the unelected president of Venezuela, our puppet, and we're telling her, give us your oil. And these Republican members of Congress, they have no problem with that. Here's another one. Congressman Brian Mast, he is the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that part of the agreement that was announced Friday by the president, ramp up oil production in Venezuela, that this would also include the Pentagon taking a financial stake in the deal, through the Pentagon's office of strategic capital. Do you support the Pentagon's role? If this is indeed the case? Absolutely, I support that. Whatever we can do to secure those deals that strengthen the United States of America to secure our needs for our military, the Pentagon, Hegseth and the Pentagon are claiming a stake in the deal for Venezuela's oil. That is not capitalism. That is the world's most powerful military, invading a country, installing a new leader and taking a piece of the profit. You know who does that kind of thing? Communists, communist governments, the Republican Party right now is literally running a campaign in the midterms, where they call the Democrats communists. Meanwhile, these same Republicans invaded another country and they're taking a chunk of that country's oil wealth for our military. They are the communists. And in case you needed any more proof, guess what party Delcy Rodriguez belongs to? It's the socialist party of Venezuela. She's not even a democratic socialist. She is a straight-up communist. Listen to Rachel Campostuffy. Delcy Rodriguez is a communist. She's part of the old regime and the Venezuelan people very much want an election. Trump and Hegseth cut a communist deal with a communist government they installed. And then they have the gall to tell you, "Oh, you got to re-elect us. You got to re-elect the Republicans." Otherwise, America will go communist. Let me show you how ugly this relationship is between Trump and Delcy Rodriguez. On Wednesday, Chris Wright, Trump's energy secretary, went to Venezuela and he met with Rodriguez. And he said the US-Venezuela relationship is all about energy. The catalyst for transforming Venezuela is energy. The catalyst for improving the life conditions of Americans, our hemisphere, and everyone in the world is to massively expand energy production. And meanwhile, at almost the same time, Trump was in the Oval Office and a reporter asked him, "Why? We're not pushing Rodriguez to hold elections." What's stopping you from asking Venezuela to set a firm date for an election? Oh, I just don't think they're ready yet. You know, it's very new. We took them out of a dictatorship. And we're getting along great with the government. Delcy, as you know, is doing a very, very good job, very highly respected. And we want that. And they want that. Delcy wants it. But they're not ready yet. Oh, they're not ready. They're ready to give us oil, but they're not ready for democracy. And we're getting along so well. Delcy is great. And she wants to have elections, says Trump. Right. An unelected autocrat installed by Trump, who is overwhelmingly unpopular, as every poll shows really, really wants to have elections. Let's be real. She doesn't want to have elections. And Trump doesn't want to have elections. And Trump and this communist ruler have an alliance in which she delivers the oil and he keeps her in power. One more thing, the oil companies and the Pentagon have a concern about this deal with Venezuela. The concern is that if there's an election and the new government of Venezuela doesn't like this sweetheart deal that Rodriguez made with Trump, the new government might revoke the deal. So the companies and the Pentagon want to prevent that. Here is Victoria Coates. She is Trump's former deputy national security advisor. I would certainly want to see the contracts. They haven't been published yet. How you enshrine this deal? So a change of government will not impair all those billions of dollars of investment. We're going to have to see out of our private sector to make this work. Did you catch that? We need to enshrine the deal. So a change of government in Venezuela won't impair all our investment. In other words, we need to lock in this deal with the unelected communist leader we installed. So a democratically elected government in Venezuela can't overturn it. She is talking about insulating our corrupt exploitative self-serving deal. She is talking about insulating that deal against democracy. Look, I don't know what your political views are. Maybe you believe in capitalism. Maybe you don't. But one thing that we should all agree on is that this corrupt coercive deal is disgusting and ruthless and it's wrong. It is a total perversion of capitalism combined with the worst kind of socialism. We need new elections. We need them to get rid of the regime that made this deal. And I'm not just talking about the regime in Venezuela. I am talking about the regime right here in the United States. See you next time.