US involvement in Venezuela could last 'years', says Trump

8th Jan 2026 11:12

(Sharecast News) - The US involvement in Venezuela could last for years, US President Donald Trump said, as he looked to dominate its oil industry and consolidate America's power in the western hemisphere.

Trump also said the Latin American country would only be able to buy US goods with the proceeds of any oil sales, after Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Washington would oversee crude sales of Venezuelan oil "indefinitely". An initial "deal" to sell 30 million to 50 million barrels of blockaded crude was agreed this week.

The US president has repeatedly raised the prospect of producing enough crude from Venezuela's oilfields to drive down the US oil price from more than $56 a barrel today to about $50 in an effort to cut energy costs for domestic consumers, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing senior administration officials.

Two tankers, accused of helping Venezuela break sanctions, were seized by US forces in the North Atlantic and Caribbean on Wednesday. One, the Bella 1, had been pursued for three weeks before turning its transponder off and reappearing as the Marinera under a Russian flag.

In a wide-ranging two-hour interview with reporters from the New York Times, Trump insisted that the interim government of the country - all former loyalists to Nicolas Maduro, who is now incarcerated in the US - is "giving us everything that we feel is necessary".

He said "only time will tell" how long the administration would demand direct oversight of the South American nation, with the hovering threat of American military action from an armada just off its shore after Maduro was snatched over the weekend and extradited in the dark of night.

"We will rebuild it in a very profitable way," Trump said. "We're going to be using oil, and we're going to be taking oil. We're getting oil prices down, and we're going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need."

Trump did not give a precise time range for how long the US would remain Venezuela's political overlord. When the NY Times suggest three months, six months, a year or longer, he replied: "I would say much longer."

"They're giving us everything that we feel is necessary," he said. "Don't forget, they took the oil from us years ago", a reference to the nationalisation of facilities built by American oil companies under previous president Hugo Chavez.

Trump has already been talking to American oil executives about investing in the Venezuelan fields, but many are reluctant, worried that the operation to run the country could falter when he leaves office, or that Venezuela's military and intelligence services would undercut the effort because they were being cut out of the profits, the newspaper stated.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com