After the blitz

Trump: with oil revenues Venezuela will only buy US products

The President: The US Administration will have direct oversight of the country for a long time

8 January 2026

I sostenitori del regime venezuelano partecipano a una marcia di protesta per il rilascio di Nicolas Maduro, l’ex presidente ora in carcere a New York REUTERS/Gaby Oraa

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Donald Trump returns to the subject of Venezuela. 'With the proceeds from our new oil deal' Venezuela will 'only buy products made in the United States'. US President Donald Trump wrote this on the Truth Social. The purchases will include, among other things, US agricultural products, US-made medicines, medical devices, and equipment to improve Venezuela's power grid and energy facilities'. In other words, the president explained, 'Venezuela is committed to doing business with the United States of America as a major partner: a wise and very positive choice for the Venezuelan people and for the United States'.

Caracas cooperates with Washington

US control over Venezuela could last for years, Trump said during an interview with the New York Times, responding that ''only time will tell'' how long the US administration will have direct oversight of Venezuela. Three months, six months, a year? ''I would say much longer,'' Trump replied. In an interview that lasted almost two hours, Trump explained: ''We're going to very profitably rebuild'' Venezuela, ''we're going to use oil and we're going to take oil. We're going to bring oil prices down and we're going to give money to Venezuela, which it desperately needs'. On why he recognised Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to lead Venezuela and not activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, Trump avoided answering. Likewise, he did not say whether he had spoken to Rodriguez. Quoting US Secretary of State Rubio, Trump said 'Marco talks to her all the time. I will tell you that we are in constant communication with her and the administration'.

The US is ''getting along very well with the current administration right now'' in Venezuela, ''they are treating us with great respect'', Trump said during an interview with the New York Times. Trump declined to answer a question about the motivation that might lead him to send troops to Venezuela. ''I can't tell you,'' Trump told the four New York Times reporters who interviewed him, ''I really wouldn't want to tell you.'' The US president also avoided answering the question of why he had not installed Edmundo Gonzalez, the opposition candidate the US had declared the winner of Venezuela's 2024 presidential election. The allies of deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro "are giving us everything we think we need," Trump said speaking of the ongoing cooperation between Caracas and Washington despite hostile public statements from the Venezuelan side. "Let's not forget that they took away our oil years ago," Trump added, referring to the nationalisation of facilities built by US oil companies.

A long-term plan for oil

The Trump administration is developing a plan to establish long-term control over Venezuelan oil, with the aim of reducing crude prices to $50 per barrel, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the dossier.

"President Trump and his advisers are preparing a radical initiative to exert dominant control over the Venezuelan oil industry for the next few years and, according to sources familiar with the dossier, the president has told his staff that he believes these measures could help reduce the price of oil to his preferred level of $50 per barrel," the newspaper reported.

According to sources cited by the WSJ, the plan calls for the US to establish a degree of control over the state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (Pdvsa), including the purchase and sale of most of its oil production. "If successful, this plan could effectively give the US control of most of the Western Hemisphere's oil reserves," the newspaper noted.

After US blitz, billions in China's receivables at risk

The US operation that led to the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is likely to jeopardise billions of dollars of Chinese loans secured by oil supplies, even though Venezuelan crude oil may continue to flow to China because the new government in Caracas needs immediate revenue. The South China Morning Post writes this today.

The US action has left China's outstanding exposure in Venezuela, estimated at around USD 10 billion by the research centre AidData, in a state of uncertainty.

In a scenario considered optimistic by observers, a US-led recovery could help Caracas increase crude oil production and exports, facilitating repayments. But analysts consider it more likely that the new administration will question the legitimacy of debts contracted with Beijing.

For Cui Shoujun, director of the Centre for Latin American Studies at Renmin University of China, a new government under the influence of Washington could invoke the 'odious debt' doctrine to justify a repudiation of financial obligations. "To obtain assistance from the International Monetary Fund and the United States, the new regime is likely to invoke the odious debt doctrine of Western legal systems, thus providing a legal pretext to repudiate its obligations," Cui said.

The term 'odious debt', or illegitimate debt, refers to the case where a new government claims that debts incurred by the previous regime did not benefit the nation and therefore cannot be enforced. The argument was invoked in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein and, with more limited results, in South Africa after the end of apartheid.

US defence spending

After the blitz in Venezuela and the threats to Greenland, Trump quantifies the force the US is prepared to deploy. The US defence budget for the year 2027 'should be $1.5 trillion', thus an increase of 50 per cent, the US president announced on Truth Social.

"After long and difficult negotiations with senators, congressmen, ministers, and other policymakers, I have determined that, for the good of our country, especially in these very turbulent and dangerous times, our military budget for the year 2027 should be $1.5 trillion, and not $1 trillion," Trump wrote, stressing that this choice will allow the US "to build the military of our dreams, to which we have long aspired, and which, above all, will guarantee our security, regardless of the enemy." For 2026, the US Congress has planned an appropriation in the order of USD 900 billion.

Trump explained that the sharp increase in defence spending is made possible 'thanks to tariffs and the huge revenues they generate' and 'that would have been unthinkable in the past'.