The Trump administration is explicitly tying military force, sanctions enforcement, and energy leverage in Venezuela into a single policy framework. Speaking Tuesday night, President Donald Trump said interim Venezuelan authorities would transfer between 30 million and 50 million barrels of “sanctioned oil” to the United States, where it would be sold at market value under U.S. control. The proceeds, Trump said on Truth Social, would be used “to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” The directive marks one of the clearest assertions yet that control of Venezuela’s oil reserves is a central objective of Washington’s intervention.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright was instructed to “execute this plan, immediately,” according to Trump, with oil to be moved by storage ships and unloaded directly at U.S. ports. At current prices, the volume is valued at roughly $2.5 billion, equivalent to about 15% of Venezuela’s annual crude production and an estimated 25 large oil tankers. Turkish media cited expectations that the influx could exert modest downward pressure on global oil prices.

“It Was So Complex”

Trump paired the oil announcement with an extensive public defense of the U.S. military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Addressing the House Republican Conference in Washington, Trump emphasized scale and coordination, saying, “It was so complex. 152 airplanes,” and adding, “We had a lot of boots on the ground.” He claimed no U.S. troops were killed while “a lot of people were killed” on the opposing side.

According to Trump, U.S. forces disrupted Venezuela’s national infrastructure during the assault. “The electricity for almost the entire country was turned off,” he said. “That’s when they knew there was a problem. The only people with lights were the people that had candles.” The operation, later named Operation Absolute Resolve, involved airstrikes on air defense and communications infrastructure in northern Venezuela and special operations raids in Caracas.

“Nobody Has Our Weapons”

The President used the Venezuela operation to argue for faster U.S. weapons production. “Nobody has our weapons. Nobody has the quality of our weapons,” Trump said, insisting that no other country could have executed such a mission. He criticized defense industry timelines, citing waits of “four years” for an F-35 fighter and “five years” for helicopters, and vowed to accelerate output by pressuring contractors.

Trump also framed the operation within a revived Monroe Doctrine logic, linking enforcement against alleged narcotrafficking and corruption with U.S. influence over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. He accused Maduro of extreme abuses, calling him “a violent guy” and claiming, “He killed millions of people,” and alleged the existence of “a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas.”

Casualties and International Fallout

Venezuelan media reported that 57 people were killed in the U.S. strikes, including 23 Venezuelan soldiers, 32 Cuban soldiers, and 2 civilians. The Cuban Communist Party released identities of Cuban personnel killed, saying they died resisting U.S. forces. Caracas accused Washington of attacking civilian and military sites, while the Trump administration defended the operation as decisive and necessary.

Maduro and Flores were transferred to U.S. custody following their capture. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said charges include narcoterrorism, cocaine trafficking, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices against the United States. Trump acknowledged international criticism but dismissed it as politically motivated, insisting the operation demonstrated that “the U.S. once again proved it has the most powerful, advanced, and lethal military on Earth.”