President Donald Trump said during a Friday event that he did not clear his Venezuela oil deal with any legal authority in the U.S. government.
Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela since the U.S. military intervention into the country earlier in the month that led to the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on drug and other criminal charges.
Trump has since boasted that the current regime in Venezuela offered him billions in oil as a show of good faith, and he has begun selling the oil on the market, funneling the money through Qatar.
“We’re dealing with the new president. We’re dealing with a lot of the people that were running the country,” Trump said in Florida as he was getting a road named after him. He added:
And the first thing is, they said, “We have 50 million barrels.” Hard to believe. I said, “Is there such a thing as 50 million barrels of oil?” And we have to get it processed immediately because we have no room. Will you take it? I said, “We’ll take it.” I didn’t have to consult with anybody on that. I didn’t have to call up our great attorney general. I said, “We will take it.” And it’s the equivalent to $5.2 billion. So it was the first day. And it is now traveling nicely to the United States. And we’ve been working on this for a long time.
Trump has both promised to control Venezuelan oil reserves, the world’s largest, for the benefit of the U.S. and the Venezuelan people. CNN reported this week that Trump is channeling the money through Qatar as a way to stop Venezuela’s many creditors from laying claim to the funds before they can be used to help rebuild the country and lessen the economic crisis in the country.
“Placing the money into an account in Qatar – potentially out of the reach of western businesses and creditors who have claims for money they say they’re owed – is one way to achieve the administration’s goals,” noted CNN on the arrangement.
Watch the clip above.
