Trump said the Trump administration Venezuelan oil revenue has reached at least $13 billion, and he told a reporter aboard Air Force One on Monday afternoon that the money is going toward running the country. He also said the total may be more than $13 billion, adding a new answer to a question that had stayed open for months.
“Thirteen billion from Venezuela? I think even more than that,” Trump said at the Air Force One press gaggle. Asked where the money was going, Trump answered: “Towards running the country.” He added: “It can go to the military. Congress has to approve it.... We’re taking in a lot of money. Billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela.”
Air Force One and the $13 billion
The number at the center of the dispute is not small. The source says the Trump administration must have collected an estimated $13 billion, while Trump described the amount as possibly higher. Trump also said, “We paid for it many many times over,” referring to Venezuela and the money the United States has taken in.
That answer matters because the money had been described before as revenue that would go back to the Venezuelan people. Trump’s new explanation points in a different direction: federal spending, including the military, with Congress still required to approve it. The shift leaves the basic mechanics of the money more important than the headline figure itself.
Financial Times and Semafor reports
Last week, the Financial Times reported that after six months and two devastating earthquakes, the money was still nowhere to be found. Earlier, Semafor reported that Trump would be keeping proceeds from the first sale in an offshore bank account based in Qatar. Those reports gave the money a location problem; Trump’s remarks gave it a use case, but not a clear accounting trail.
Trump also said the United States now has a very good relationship with Venezuela. He did not spell out how the funds move from revenue to spending, which leaves Congress at the center of the next step because Trump said Congress has to approve it.
John Thune and Congress
John Thune has not been placed in the middle of the money question by Trump’s remarks, but Trump’s reference to congressional approval makes the legislature the decisive gatekeeper. For readers trying to track the money, the practical question is no longer whether the revenue exists in Trump’s telling; it is which account, which authority, and which spending channel Congress is being asked to bless.
The unresolved point is where exactly the $13 billion of Venezuelan oil revenue is being held and spent. Trump says the money goes toward running the country and can go to the military, but the money’s path still sits between the White House, Congress, and the unanswered accounting question around Venezuela.
