President Donald Trump said Sunday, “We’re going to run everything,” when asked what would happen to Venezuela’s oil reserves, which are worth trillions of dollars.
Trump’s remarks came aboard Air Force One on Sunday night during a gaggle with reporters on the flight back to Washington, DC, from Palm Beach, Florida.
According to the Kobeissi report, Venezuela had, as of Saturday’s oil prices, approximately $17.3 trillion in oil reserves, which exceeds the collective global gross domestic product excluding the United States and China. A reporter started a question by stating Venezuela has “$17 billion worth of oil reserves.”
“More. You mean trillion. Did you say billion or trillion?” Trump responded.
“I said billion,” she replied, to which Trump emphasized, “It’s much more than that.”
When she asked what would happen to the reserves, Trump said, “We’re going to run everything.”
“We’re going to run it, fix it,” he said. “We’ll have elections at the right time. The main thing you have to fix it. It’s a broken country. There’s no money. There’s inflation, like we would have had. If I didn’t win this election, we would have been Venezuela on steroids.”
WATCH — President Trump: Running Venezuela Is America First:
Trump noted Saturday that American oil companies will go into Venezuela to repair “badly broken” oil infrastructure. He said Sunday night that he had spoken with oil companies before and after the operation Absolute Resolve to remove former dictator Nicolás Maduro from power.
“Yes, before and after,” he said when asked if he had discussions with companies before the mission. “And they want to go in, and they’re going to do a great job for the people of Venezuela, and they’re going to represent us well. But you know, the infrastructure is rusty, rotten, most of it unusable. It’s old, it’s broken. You see pipes laying all over the ground.”
“Nothing’s been invested for years. Chevron’s in, as you know, they’ve done a good job, but… they haven’t been in a position to invest money, because they’re on a month-to-month basis. They’re only there because I wanted them to be there.”