Trump Struck Oil
This letter to the editor, by Kerry Kittel, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on January 15, 2026.
It only took a few days for the Trump administration to be honest about why we invaded Venezuela. President Donald Trump wants the oil and has already made it clear that he will be in charge of the profits.
This was not a law enforcement mission. If it had been, the targets of the indictment would go to jail, the cops would go home and the defendants would face trial.
It cannot have been about drugs. Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted by an American jury for flooding the nation with over 400 tons of cocaine, according to the DOJ.
Trump and his team are bragging about stealing 30 to 50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela. American companies produce that in about four days. America would consume it in a little more than two days. A literal drop in the bucket.
Rebuilding Venezuela’s oil infrastructure will cost perhaps $180 billion over 10 years. Trump is already proposing that U.S. taxpayers reimburse oil companies for investing in Venezuela’s infrastructure. Despite trying, Trump has not proposed an adequate U.S. infrastructure plan. What happened to America First?
Candidate Trump promised peace and said that “we must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change.” In his second term alone, President Trump has bombed seven nations and invaded one, all while promising he won’t be bound by international law. “My own morality, my own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
In both his personal and political life, Trump has been completely amoral, with zero concern for right and wrong in any normal sense. To him, anything that pleases him or gives him wealth or power is right. His troubled mind assures him that there are no limits to his power.
Trump is wrong about most things, but especially about being unstoppable.
“The people” are the strongest force on earth when they are unified and determined. We proved that when we deposed our last King nearly 250 years ago.
Freedom-loving Americans must raise the alarm among friends, family members and neighbors just as they did in 1776. We must urge Congress to take back the powers Trump has seized. We must vote for candidates who will restore the system of checks and balances that has served us so well for nearly 250 years.