With American forces having captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and taken him to a federal detention center in New York City — where he is facing drug charges — U.S. President Donald Trump is saying that the United States will be "running" Venezuela, including its oil supply. Trump is promising that Venezuela will be "turning over" 30-50 million barrels of oil to the United States and greatly benefitting the U.S. economy in the process.
But liberal economist Paul Krugman, in his January 8 Substack column, argues that most Americans will see little benefit from Trump's quest for Venezuelan oil.
"Trump would have you believe that it's a big deal — MILLIONS of barrels," Krugman explains. "But that amount of oil has a market value in the range of $2 billion, which is not a big number for the United States. In fact, it's less than 0.01 percent of GDP. And in terms of U.S. oil consumption, that's about two days' worth of oil."
The former New York Times columnist continues, "However, Trump says that the money from selling the oil 'will be controlled by me.' And while $2 billion is a trivial sum from the perspective of national interest, it's a fairly big number if the money is diverted into the hands of the clique that is currently running the U.S. government."
Krugman laments that U.S. foreign policy during Trump's second presidency "makes no sense if interpreted through the lens of national interest."
"How can it serve U.S. interests to insult and demean Canada, which has been an utterly reliable ally?," Krugman writes. "Why would a U.S. president talk about seizing Greenland, which belongs to another ally, Denmark, and is a place where America already has a military base and can do whatever it considers necessary to protect our national security? But the Trump clique doesn't care whether nations have been staunch allies of the United States. They want subservient clients paying tribute not to America, but to them personally. And that’s something democracies like Canada and Denmark won't do."
Krugman continues, "Trump has been remarkably transparent about his goals in Venezuela: It's all about looting. That is, he wants to seize the country's oil wealth on behalf of himself and his clique. Some people, notably María Corina Machado, leader of Venezuela's opposition, have been surprised that Trump shows no interest in restoring democracy. But why would he? He's unable to enrich himself personally in democracies like Canada and Denmark. But a repressive regime like Venezuela is willing to pay him protection money…. The bottom line is that to understand what Trump is doing around the world, you must disabuse yourself of the notion that any of it is about serving America. It's all about glorifying himself and enriching his clique."
Paul Krugman's full Substack column is available at this link.