The White House has reportedly stashed millions of dollars from sales of Venezuelan oil in Qatari banks since the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro, raising huge questions about how the money will be allocated and if Congress and the American public will have a say.
An estimated $500 million from the first Venezuelan oil sales has already been deposited in U.S.-controlled accounts, but that could be the tip of the iceberg as American officials seek to broker sales of up to 50 million barrels of oil, Semafor reported Thursday.
It’s not clear what the money will be used for or who will decide how to allocate it.
Trump has said he will use the money as he sees fit to stabilize Venezuela’s economy as part of a larger plan to “run” the country indefinitely, apparently while leaving Maduro’s former vice president Delcy Rodriguez in power.
The murky arrangement is likely to draw criticism and legal action from critics who say the money should be going directly into U.S. coffers or handled in a much more transparent way.
“There is no basis in law for a president to set up an offshore account that he controls so that he can sell assets seized by the American military,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) told Semafor.
Underlining the high stakes, U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another oil tanker with alleged ties to Venezuela, the sixth such seizure since the self-imposed embargo began last year.
The development comes as Trump prepared to meet Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro.
Trump surprisingly dismissed Machado as lacking the popular backing to run Venezuela after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife in an attack on a heavily-guarded Caracas compound and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
The White House has instead signaled its willingness to continue work indefinitely with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a key member of Maduro’s former inner circle.
Trump said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump told reporters. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
In endorsing Rodríguez, Trump has sidelined Machado despite her close ties to some of his Republican allies in Congress and south Florida, which is home to a sprawling Venezuelan diaspora community.
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump coveted. She has since thanked Trump and offered to share the prize with him, a move that has been rejected by the Nobel Institute.
