President Donald Trump has long been obsessed with the idea he could simply take Venezuela’s oil, says John Bolton, Trump’s onetime national security adviser.
But Bolton warned in an interview Tuesday with POLITICO’s E&E News that Trump’s recent actions against Venezuela could embolden U.S. rivals — especially since Trump laid claim to Venezuela’s natural resources after his administration deposed President Nicolás Maduro.
“The mistakes he’s making today … lend greater credence to a Russian or a Chinese effort to say, well, we’re just doing what the U.S. did in Venezuela,” Bolton said.
During the first Trump administration — when Bolton served as Trump’s national security adviser — Trump and other White House officials often talked about taking Venezuela’s oil, Bolton said. White House officials even reached out to the oil refiners on the Gulf Coast, which process the thick Venezuelan crude, to see how their business would be affected, Bolton added.
