Trump's 'ultimate prize' has blown up in his face

President Donald Trump returns to the White House, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Washington, D.C., March 1, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

President Donald Trump has long been fixated on one "ultimate prize" that has driven his recent foreign policy, but according to a new breakdown from MS NOW, this chase has "backfired" badly and blown up in his face.

Writing for the outlet on Saturday, reporter Joseph Zeballos-Roig explained that Trump has long advocated for the plunder of oil from foreign nations even before his first term as president, and the desire has been plain as day in his recent military actions against Venezuela and Iran.

"Long before becoming president of the United States, Donald Trump coveted other nations’ oil fields," he wrote. "In years past he’s talked about America seizing oil in Libya and Iraq after those wars ended, arguing that anything less than full-on resource acquisition was a boneheaded mistake. Trump seems determined to correct that supposed error in his second term — no matter the costs to his country and party."

Zeballos-Roig further highlighted recent comments from Trump at an event in Las Vegas, where he boasted about "taking a lot of oil from Venezuela" after abducting the country's leader, Nicolás Maduro, claiming that the U.S. has "paid for the war with what we’ve taken out many, many, many times." Trump also invoked an old imperialist axiom, "To the victor belong the spoils," to justify this approach, the same one he invoked in April to defend his war against Iran.

"For Trump, oil is the ultimate prize to win. In his zero-sum world, he is the oilman-in-chief," Zeballos-Roig continued. "The president’s unyielding belief in displaying hard power against Venezuela, Iran and beyond, coupled with a conquistador’s appetite for plunder, does come with real consequences."

He added: "Politically, the president is struggling with his worst approval ratings of either term, due in no small part to his war with Iran raising gas prices. A Pew Research Center survey last month, for instance, gave him a 34 percent approval rating. He’s especially underwater when it comes to his management of inflation, with spiking gas prices largely to blame given their visibility. The national average price of a gallon of gas crossed into $4-per-gallon territory again just over two weeks ago — and most Americans blame the president for higher prices at the pump. There’s also the human cost. Eighteen U.S. soldiers have been killed in the Iran war along with at least 1,700 Iranian civilians so far. The toll could well grow, given the apparent half-hearted attempts to move beyond the ceasefire into diplomatic negotiations that yield an end to the war."

Despite his boasts, Zeballos-Roig noted that Venezuelan oil production has ticked up only slightly since the U.S. takeover, up to 1.1 million barrels a day, compared to 900,000 from the same time last year. Top American oil companies have also been hesitant to get in on the situation in Venezuela, despite Trump's insistence.

As Trump pushes for more and more foreign oil continue to implode, Zeballos-Roig argued that Trump is gambling with the "high price of his military adventurism" as voters seem set to punish him and the Republican Party in the forthcoming midterms.

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