So when I rob someone at gunpoint I can just say they have entered a deal with me to give me their stuff and maybe I'll throw them back a penny.

Venezuela is now a subservient resource colony for Trump's billionaire friends to exploit and pillage.

This is what they tried to do to Canada as well during the last trade negotiations.

The growing oligarchy in the US is a parasite that kills its host. It can only survive if it finds new hosts to infect.

Is that the deal where the US stops attacking fishermen, and Venezuela pays the ransom?

https://www.britannica.com/event/2025-US-Strikes-on-Venezuelan-Vessels

And by deal, he means kidnap the leader and steal the country's oil.

So he's stealing 65 billion barrels of oil from Venezuela. And he's probably threatening them with war and death if they don't "sign on".

BRB gonna make a deal at the house down the street where I show up with a gun and they give my ownership and praise me for it daily

"Deal"

Does He still have Maduro kidnapped somewhere?

Considering how little we teach the Banana Republic era in schools I wonder how few Americans recognize what's going on here. How many of them know about the American conquest of Haiti or the Dominican Republic or any of the other dozen countries America conquered and pillaged.

Kidnapping a country's leader and then capturing the oil refineries and oil fields is NOT the definition of a "deal" 🙂

LOL, "deal".

Venezuela has twice nationalized the oil infrastructure, 1976 and 1999. Meaning they kicked out the foreign companies that invested and built infrastructure. This is why Trump couldn't find any companies willing to do it a third time. So now it seems the US is gaurantieeng the security with this "lease". This is a scary prospect all the way around.

Fucking USA!!!!! They just steal whatever they want. They are World's enemy No. 1.

can we please have confirmation from the side of Venezuela? not much has been true of what Trump says

This seems like a much bigger deal than the news has portrayed. It seems like Trump feels like he can't do fun things (bomb Iran) because of the oil stockpile. So he is doing anything he can to try to show markets that he has oil so he can get back to doing fun.

Consumption of US is 19.4 million barrels a day.
https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/united-states/oil-consumption So 65 billion seems like a lot.

However, "The bulk of the country’s petroleum is made up of heavy, sour crude oil—a dark, gloopy, acidic substance that is both high in sulfur and relatively difficult to recover. This type of crude oil is very useful in asphalt production, but it needs to undergo a longer refining process to be made into more lucrative products, such as gasoline and other fuels, compared with lighter crude oil" https://www.britannica.com/science/How-Much-Oil-Does-Venezuela-Have-and-How-Much-Is-Accessible

If our processes are set up to process one type of oil, can we even switch to another type? How many refineries can do it? How much is wasted in the process and what is the rate? This seems like everything trump does: effective on a first glance but the moment you start thinking or asking questions it falls apart

We made a deal with ourselves basically?

“Control” meaning steal?

So this won't do much for gas prices

Has Venezuela entered the deal too, or is it unilateral?

Aha, let me guess, only place to get that fuel is trump's gas station?

Doesn't refining sour crude result in higher gasoline prices?