President Donald Trump touted the arrival of an oil tanker carrying what he described as one million barrels of crude from Venezuela during a campaign stop Tuesday in Corpus Christi, Texas, playfully suggesting the South American nation could one day become the 51st U.S. state.
Speaking inside a warehouse at the Port of Corpus Christi, Trump pointed toward the vessel anchored offshore and framed the shipment as a milestone for domestic energy supplies, the New York Post reported. The stop came just seven days before next week’s midterm elections, as the president attempts to defend Republican congressional majorities against voter frustration over consumer prices.
Energy Agreement Follows Maduro Ouster
Trump claimed the crude is being delivered to the country “at zero cost to the American taxpayer,” attributing the shipment to a major pact struck in August with Venezuela’s interim administration. The White House reached that deal with Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez, aiming to secure access to 65 billion barrels of oil reserves through private sector partnerships, according to the New York Post.
The agreement followed the Jan. 3 military raid in Caracas, during which U.S. forces captured longtime Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and transported him to New York to face federal narco-terrorism charges. With Venezuela holding an estimated 303 billion barrels of proven crude reserves—representing about 17 percent of global supplies—Trump highlighted the geopolitical turnaround during his remarks.
“Venezuela will become a prosperous country, and who knows? Maybe some day soon it’ll become a prosperous 51st state,” Trump told the crowd, according to The Guardian. In previous months, the president had raised similar ideas regarding the acquisition of Greenland, Canada and Mexico, the outlet noted.
Gas Prices and Midterm Pressures
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as national security adviser, briefly appeared alongside the president on stage. Rubio helped coordinate both the military intervention that ousted Maduro and the subsequent oil negotiations, the New York Post reported.
The administration has faced growing domestic scrutiny over household expenses, particularly after opting into a war with Iran in February, according to The Guardian. That conflict led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime chokepoint responsible for approximately 20 percent of world oil transit, sending nationwide gasoline prices soaring. In an online post ahead of the rally, Trump insisted that domestic fuel costs “will soon come plummeting down” because of shipments from South America.
The Texas visit was also designed to shore up support for state Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. Paxton is trailing Democratic opponent James Talarico by 1.8 percentage points in the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, the New York Post reported. Trump held an additional campaign rally later Tuesday in Lubbock.
Uncertainty Over Democratic Reforms
Despite the administration’s celebration of the incoming oil shipments, critics have raised sharp concerns regarding the post-Maduro political climate in Caracas. Venezuelan authorities have not yet organized or scheduled democratic elections since Maduro’s capture nine months ago, The Guardian reported.
Whether the crude imported to Texas refineries will substantially lower consumer energy costs before voters cast their ballots next Tuesday remains unclear, even as administration officials describe the shipment as the opening phase of a multi-billion-barrel pipeline.
