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Former President Donald Trump has announced that the Venezuelan government will be “handing over” around $2 billion worth of Venezuelan oil to the US. This major agreement would reroute cargoes originally bound for China while potentially helping Venezuela avoid deeper oil production cuts.

“This Crude will be sold at its Market Price, and that revenue will be controlled by me, as the President of the United States of America, to guarantee it is used to help the population of Venezuela and the United States!” Trump stated in an online post.

Officials in Caracas and the state company PDVSA did not provide comment on the reported agreement.

Background: A Blockade and a Capture

Venezuela currently has huge volumes of oil loaded on tankers and in onshore tanks that it has been unable to ship due to a naval blockade enacted by the Trump administration. This pressure campaign ended with the removal of Nicolás Maduro, who was seized by United States troops over the weekend.

While top Venezuelan officials have called Maduro’s capture a abduction and alleged the US of trying to steal the country’s vast oil reserves, Tuesday’s announcement is seen as a powerful signal that the interim government is responding to Trump’s ultimatum to open up to US oil companies or risk further military intervention.

Parallel Ambitions: Acquiring Greenland

Meanwhile, Trump and his advisers have stated they are “looking into” a “spectrum of choices” in an bid to obtain Greenland. A White House statement on Tuesday noted that using the US military to do so is “always an option”.

“President Trump has made it well known that obtaining Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s essential to deter our rivals in the Arctic region,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “The president and his team are considering a series of options to achieve this critical foreign policy goal, and of course, using the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s discretion.”

Leavitt’s comments came as the heads of state of leading European powers voiced resistance against Trump’s long-running desire to annex the Arctic territory.

Additional Major Updates

• Aid Money Halted: The Trump administration is freezing more than $10 billion in federal childcare and family assistance funds to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cited concerns about fraud and misuse.
• Epstein Files Withheld: The Department of Justice has released less than 1% of the so-called Epstein files, a court filing has disclosed. Democrats have escalated criticism of the administration’s “disregard for the law” for sealing the files.
• Immigration Crackdown in Minnesota: The administration has sent more immigration agents to Minnesota, in an extension of growing pressure against the state and its immigrant populations. Immigration officials called it the agency’s “most significant crackdown so far”.
• PM’s Strong Rebuke: Greenland’s Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, urged Trump to relinquish his “dreams of taking over” Greenland and accused the US of “entirely unacceptable” rhetoric. The Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, previously warned that a US attack on a NATO ally would mean the “end” of the military alliance.
• Resources Diverted from Trafficking: Democratic senators claimed in a letter that the Trump administration has ceased work to combat child exploitation, human trafficking, and cartels as it reassigns thousands of law enforcement personnel to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Oil Price Movement

The fallout of the US intervention in Venezuela sent shockwaves through the markets. The price of oil fell after Trump’s announcement, with traders bracing for more supply entering the market. US crude fell by more than 1.5 percent, while the international benchmark, Brent crude, also decreased.

Bipartisan Opposition

The idea of an invasion against Greenland encountered swift bipartisan pushback from US legislators. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego vowed to introduce a resolution to block such a move. GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson said he did not think military action was “appropriate”, and other Republican senators warned it could lead to the “collapse” of NATO.

The broader diplomatic situation remains fraught, with the US simultaneously pursuing high-stakes disputes in Venezuela and the North Atlantic while enacting controversial domestic policy shifts.