NEW ANALYSIS: The Venezuela Heist: Trump’s $100 Billion Taxpayer Scam
Sunday's “military triumph” became a bailout for oil companies and a bankrupt regime
Three days after U.S. Special Operations forces killed approximately 75 people in a pre-dawn raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the real plan is emerging from classified congressional briefings. And it’s not what American voters were told.
This wasn’t a military operation to liberate Venezuela. This was the opening act of a massive wealth transfer from U.S. taxpayers to oil companies, with Trump’s network and a bankrupt Venezuelan regime as the beneficiaries.
At a classified briefing for senior lawmakers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio—who also serves as Trump’s national security adviser—told congressional officials he is “confident he can work with” Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president who now serves as acting president.
Why the confidence? Because administration officials assess that “unless she cooperates, Venezuela will run out of money within weeks and be unable to pay security forces and other government officials.”
Venezuela’s government is bankrupt. Looted by its dictatorship and by its Russian overlords, and the U.S. taxpayer is about to become the financier of last resort.
The Bankrupt Regime Bailout
Rodríguez didn’t overthrow Maduro. She’s his former VP, complicit in the same authoritarian governance that destroyed Venezuela’s economy. But now she’s Washington’s partner because she agreed to one simple trade: sacrifice Maduro, keep power, get U.S. taxpayer money to stay afloat.
The “leverage” Rubio described isn’t leverage at all. It’s dependency. Venezuela’s government can’t pay its own security forces. It can’t operate without external funding. And rather than letting a bankrupt authoritarian regime collapse, the Trump administration is preparing to prop it up with American tax dollars.
This is the second Latin American country Trump is preparing to float financially, after Argentina. But Venezuela’s price tag makes Argentina look modest.
