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President Donald Trump has declared that the Venezuelan government will be “turning over” approximately $2 billion worth of Venezuelan oil to the US. This major agreement would divert supplies originally bound for China while allowing Venezuela sidestep deeper oil production cuts.

“This Petroleum will be sold at its prevailing 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 assist the citizens of Venezuela and the United States!” Trump proclaimed in an social media post.

Venezuelan government officials and the national oil company PDVSA offered no response on the reported agreement.

Context: A Blockade and a Capture

Venezuela currently has huge volumes of oil aboard tankers and in onshore tanks that it has been blocked from exporting due to a blockade imposed by the Trump administration. This pressure campaign ended with the ouster of Nicolás Maduro, who was apprehended by US forces over the past weekend.

While high-ranking Venezuelan officials have described Maduro’s capture a illegal seizure and accused the US of attempting to seize the country’s immense oil reserves, Tuesday’s statement is seen as a clear indicator that the current government is bowing to Trump’s demand to provide entry to US oil companies or risk additional military intervention.

A Separate Agenda: The Quest for Greenland

Meanwhile, Trump and his aides have stated they are “exploring” a “spectrum of choices” in an attempt to take control of Greenland. A presidential statement on Tuesday noted that using the US military to do so is “always an option”.

“President Trump has made it abundantly clear that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s essential to counter our rivals in the Arctic region,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “The president and his team are evaluating a set of options to achieve this critical foreign policy goal, and of course, employing the US military is one available path at the commander-in-chief’s command.”

Leavitt’s comments came as the top officials of key European powers voiced resistance against Trump’s long-running desire to annex the Arctic territory.

Additional Major Updates

• Childcare Funds Frozen: The Trump administration is withholding more than $10 billion in federal childcare and family assistance funds to several states including California and New York. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cited issues regarding fraud and misuse.
• Limited Document Release: The Department of Justice has released less than 1% of the much-discussed Epstein files, a court filing has shown. Democrats have escalated criticism of the administration’s “unlawful actions” for keeping records under seal.
• Agents Deployed to Minnesota: The administration has dispatched more immigration agents to Minnesota, in an extension of escalating attacks against the state and its immigrant populations. Immigration officials called it the agency’s “biggest-ever operation”.
• Greenland’s Firm Rejection: Greenland’s Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, urged Trump to give up his “fantasies about annexation” Greenland and accused the US of “wholly inappropriate” rhetoric. The Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, previously warned that a US attack on a NATO ally would mean the “collapse” of the military alliance.
• Law Enforcement Priorities Shifted: Democratic senators claimed in a letter that the Trump administration has ceased work to combat child exploitation, human trafficking, and cartels as it redirects thousands of law enforcement personnel to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Market Reaction

The fallout of the US intervention in Venezuela sent ripples through global markets. The price of oil declined after Trump’s announcement, with traders expecting more supply becoming available. US crude fell by over 1.5%, while the international benchmark, Brent crude, also dropped.

Political Backlash

The idea of using the military against Greenland encountered immediate 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 “the right course”, and other Republican senators warned it could lead to the “collapse” of NATO.

The international diplomatic situation remains uncertain, with the US concurrently involved in major disputes in South America and the Arctic while enacting contentious domestic policy shifts.