Trump suggests US taxpayers could reimburse oil firms for Venezuela investment
Donald Trump has suggested US taxpayers could reimburse energy companies for repairing Venezuelan infrastructure for extracting and shipping oil.
Trump acknowledged that “a lot of money” would need to be spent to increase oil production in Venezuela after US forces ousted its leader, Nicolás Maduro, but suggested his government could pay oil companies to do the work.
“A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue,” the president said.
The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, reportedly plans to meet representatives of Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil at the Goldman Sachs Energy, Clean Tech & Utilities Conference in Miami later this week.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/06/trump-us-taxpayers-oil-firms-venezuela-investmentOpen linkView original on sh.itjust.works439
Comments97
And there it is America. You will be paying for the oil baron's windfall.
They're already paying. They're about to pay more. 😄
Public costs and private profits eh?
I think even a general strike would fall short as an action.
So much capitalism. What a free market /s
If oil companies invest in Venezuela that is their problem not the US taxpayers problem.
This man somehow gets dumber every single day. I didn't think there were IQ's below zero but he is proving otherwise.
He's dumb, but this is deliberate. The whole point is to take public funds and give them to the wealthy while making it impossible for the poor to live.
This drives everything, doesn't it. Even when it doesn't look like it on the surface, look for an upwards redistribution scheme is and you find the logic behind the madness.
Stealing from the poor to give to the rich...
Yeah. This isn't the first time we as taxpayers have paid for "infrastructure upgrades" with nothing to show for it. They straight up pocketed the money.
We thought we were going to end with techno feudalism. Turns out it's just plain ol' feudalism.
WDYM not US taxpayer problem, who paid for the special military operation, that's supposed to enable oil corpos to "invest"?
The US wants to kill off the non working citizens and funnel those savings to the oligarchy. Such efficiency. We really need to start hunting billionaires.
Final stage capitalism
Hey, um, congress? What the fuck are you waiting for?
They're waiting on their buy options
their cut
For someone to remind them of what the consequences of an unsatisfied population are I guess
This alone would be over the top satirical fiction of a thoroughly corrupt government in most modern countries. To the point where the premise would risk rejection by editors for being too fucking blatant about it! 🤦
So if we pay for it, we'll own the product... r-r-right?!
Every year, on the anniversary of Maduro's kidnapping, you would allowed to dip your finger in a pot of crude and keep what sticks to your skin.
That is all.
The real reason Trump took out Maduro. He dances better than him without jacking two guys off at the same time.
GG no RE
Americans really need to look into tax striking
We need to start looking into French inventors of the late 18th century.
They are looking into a tax strike , especially MAGAs, as well as a general strike .
And how does one go about doing that?
Jesus you can't avoid relying on some third-party hosting even for this? This is just asking to have your content removed due to "ToS violations"
Everybody who voted for this imbecile should be forced to reimburse the rest of the world for the damage he and his cronies are doing. Everything they own plus twelve years of indentured servitude would be a very small first step.
At least. Honesty, when they're starving in the coming depression and when their kids are bleeding out on a battlefield, they'll suffer enough. They might not be cognizant of it and they'll do the whole mental gymnastics but those conditions affect your subconscious and physical health beyond what you can ignore
You really think things would be different if the other sock puppet got elected?
Neither?
Things would be different, but not what we deserve. We deserve multiple political parties to choose from that represent us all. Not a duo poly holding us hostage.
The other candidate would probably try to at least keep the appearances that we live in a civilized world, and that international law and treaties work. The Big Orange Turd doesn't care for such niceties.
Obviously they would. Maybe not better (though almost certainly so) but definitely different.
There's the quiet sneaky puppet and the loud aggressive puppet. They switch them appropriately. They're basically there to give us something to yell at.
They're not thinking at all. They are just using talking points from their "party" on deflecting any responsibility for the fascist actions of their country and turning the blame on someone else to feel self righteous.
Hypocrisy is something yankistanis are born with. Pathetic spineless rags.
Have no doubt, they'll throw anyone under the bus. They're only bothered this war criminal is from the wrong party, other wise they'd be kissing ass.
So he invaded Venezuala for oil money, but is planning to take a loss so that other people can sell that oil for him.
A genius businessman, everybody.
Double and triple losses. I'm certain the oil companies already wrote off their losses and were made whole on our dime as well.
The coolest thing? I was just watching a news story claiming it may take one or more decades to get things in order there. Billions and literal decades with nothing to show.
by that time, renewables would already dominate the market for decades already.
Not if they ban those radioactive windmills first!
God I hope so.
I feel like we could save a lot of money on waste fraud and abuse if we threw Shitler and the Turd Reich into Lake Michigan
No! Don't pollute the waterways like that. There is a perfectly good zone on Venus we could launch them and they could enjoy the climate they keep working so hard to achieve.
and the oligarchs that supported him.
That article reads like they're trying to sell the bear's skin before they've caught it. They kidnapped the Venezuelan leader, but the rest of the old regime is still in power. The USA doesn't control anything on the ground, yet they're talking as if it's a done deal and that they can just walk in and take over.
I also wouldn't want to be a us oil company employee that gets send over to Venezuela. Even if the USA somehow manages to take control of the oil fields, there's likely to be a lot of sabotage and guerilla attacks.
Yep. The US can't exert real control without boots on the ground. Boots who would, once again, find themselves fighting angry, and well armed, citizens.
Socialize loss, privatize profits.
I believe this saying would be more accurate stated as follows:
Nationalize debt, privatize profit.
FUCK THAT!
If taxpayers pay for it, then taxpayers should receive the profits.
Why the fuck should taxpayers finance capitalist ventures that only enrich the shareholders?
Because fascism == corporatism, and we'rr living under a fascist regime.
I hate to break it to you, but Trump sort of wants all of our money.
Greedy bastards will never be satisfied.
At my age I think that is the only course in system that allows unrestricted hoarding of resources.
I don't think these people have anything outside of their need to hoard in life. It is a mental illness.
I agree with you completely and I've been calling it out for years. People treated me like I was a crackpot for saying things like "infinite pursuit of growth is neither possible nor desirable." Or "life isn't a zero-sum game and a system that's built to uplift everyone is better than a system designed to maximize gains for a few."
Clearly there aren't many leftists around me, or at least the ones who are hate me for different reasons. Maybe because I said MLs are authoritarians and no better than maga. I like democracy, it's capitalism that needs to go. The Nordic model seemed to work just fine until right-wing propagandists invaded Scandinavia.
Oh, I also compared capitalists to cancerous growths, and that made the oligarchs feel so oppressed. Maybe that's why billionaires these days are comparing themselves to holocaust victims. Those poor billionaires... won't anyone think of the shareholders?
they are also obsessed with longevity, they want to outlive the people they exploited so they dont come after them, plus to remain relevant.
Well I hope their bodies reject the transplants and they die on the operating table
Sounds likely. I don't know many that aren't terrified of a society that glorifies unreasonable accumulation.
Because they think it would allow them to do the same...
...while they work into their seventies because a full retirement is out of reach for most of the working class...
his wealth has grown like 3x since he was elected, before that he was losing quite a bit of money fending of lawsuits and other cases in court.
Cool, we can just make a new currency
I'm no expert and would love to be told if this is wrong, from what I've heard, oil companies won't be doing jack shit so I don't think you will need to worry about your tax dollars reimbursing them.
Oil is barely profitable for investment at the moment.
If it was they could invest into US oil in the permian basin where there is still billions of barrels to go. Drill baby drill, I belive they say.
Investment would be much more stable in the US because fuck knows what is going to happen in venuzula in the next year, let alone in the next administration. They would probably lose it all over again.
It would be profitable for them if they get the taxpayers to cover all their expenses while keeping the gains for themselves.
It would be evil, but capitalism doesn't care about that. They only care about what's profitable, even if everyone else suffers as a result.
Oh, well yeah if the tax payers are tax paying then yes they are pretty fucked but I still don't see them actually building anything.
He couldn't even build a wall last time, she'll be right mate.
I like your optimism, but walls don't extract oil...
The oil companies don't want to invest because in 10y when production recovers, who knows what oil prices will be? Even if they could pump it out tomorrow, Oil is cheap, and driving it down would bankrupt American oil production.
The logic of "addiction to foreign oil" is outdated. America is an energy exporter.
The US exports light crude, but has to import heavy crude.
Lol Donny you're losing the thread here you gotta pretend to fuck over foreigners, not Americans. Come on now, focus!
Earnest wuestion: How does one find out about events like this with sufficient notice to organize protests to disrupt and shut these kinds of meetings down?
They’ve always been doing this anyway. Your taxes fund dividends.
Wait! Isn't socialism, according to the american doctrine, a very bad thing?
Reimbursing oil companies does not seem like socialism.
It's socialism for ✨corporations✨
It's hard to pass as "sound investment", also.
Gosh, that's nice of 'em! Where's the, "I don't want one cent of MUH TAXES going to fund foreigners" crowd now?
If this keeps up I’m just gonna stop paying taxes. So sick of this shit.
You need organized mass resistance, not individual actions.
what an absolute scam wizard
That sounds a lot like communism 🤔
"America First".
Lmao.
Imagine being a MAGA brainlet in 2026.
The fuck we will.
Yeah you will.
Electing a president is a national responsibility. He acts in the name of the United States.
Voting is important.
Worth noting that people elected this president in part on the promise to not start wars or do regime changes. Voting for peace did not produce what the voters wanted.
I don’t think anyone with any brains thought electing Trump would bring peace.
Edit: you’re right though, people actually did vote for him believing that
Hahahaha that’s awesome
Resistance becomes necessary once any crime becomes legalized in a mobocracy.
I am surprised to hear such a realistic assessment.
I thought this was going to be like the wall or tariffs, but yeah the us tax payer will fund the foreign country’s infrastructure.
just like we bailed out one of bailed out us investors in argentina with 40bn.
We pay for the honer of paying more later. Its the circle of grift.
Really salting the wound for anyone working in US oil production, which is a lot considering the US is the world's largest crude exporter
HELL FUCKING NO
Those fucks already receive billions in corporate socialism.
Finally, a politician who thinks of the poor oil corporations!
Paul Singer will take this all the way up to the Supreme Court... again.
I mean... Isn't that what taxes are?