Trump Says Venezuela Gave Him 1M Barrels of Oil as “Gift” as US Seizes Revenues

President Donald Trump bizarrely said on Tuesday that Venezuela gave him 1 million barrels of oil as a “gift” that he is giving to the U.S. public, which he referred to as “you people.”

Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio travelled to Texas to show off a tanker that arrived at Port Arthur carrying Venezuelan crude oil to be processed at Texas refineries, government sources said. The president was also in the state to hold rallies for Ken Paxton in his race for U.S. Senate against Democrat James Talarico.

“We took over Venezuela very successfully, and they sent me, as a gift, a boatload of — a million barrels of oil. And I’m giving that to the United States of America,” Trump said in remarks before his flight.

“We’re going to accept a million barrels of oil, and I’m going to give it to you people to use it the way you want. And we’re gonna have — oil prices are going to be dropping very sharply very soon,” he went on.

There are several details of Trump’s remarks that are outright false or deeply confounding.

The tanker arrived as part of the U.S.’s secretive, exploitative deal between the U.S. and Venezuelan billionaire Alejandro Betancourt and his firm, North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP). As part of the deal, the U.S. is purchasing roughly 20 percent of NABEP’s oil at a deep discount and is taking 35 percent ownership of the firm. NABEP was also granted rights to a sizable portion of Venezuela’s oil reserves, which represent the primary source of the poor country’s revenues.

News outlets that have viewed the deal have noted that it is written to favor the U.S. in every aspect, with seemingly very little input from Venezuela’s government or its citizenry. The deal is not expected to significantly affect oil prices, which remain at record levels due to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

As the Trump administration frames Venezuela as a source of wealth for the U.S., the seizure of Venezuelan oil and its profits are worsening an existing human rights crisis in the country, compounding issues of poverty and causing skyrocketing inflation for the country’s 30 million people.

Later, at a rally in Corpus Christi, Trump showed off the tanker and suggested that Venezuela could become the 51st state.

Venezuela is the “greatest oil victory in history. To the victor belong the spoils, right?” Trump said. “We’re bringing out a lot of oil for ourselves, a lot.”

He said that the oil is being provided at “zero cost to the American taxpayer,” which is untrue, as it was obtained as part of the deal.

Tuesday’s comment is the latest instance of Trump boasting about his personal benefits from the U.S.’s oil dealings. At a rally this weekend, he said that oil prices are “temporarily high,” and boasted that the U.S.’s “oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars.”

“I can just see the fake headlines: ‘President Trump is talking about all the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump,’” Trump went on. “But I said, ‘I don’t give a damn. I’m gonna say it. We’re making a freaking fortune.’”

Indeed, Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee found in a new analysis released Monday that Trump’s oil and gas stocks have risen by as much as $35.8 million so far this year, rising to as much as $81.6 million amid the war on Iran that has devastated the country’s civilian sector.