[News] Oil seizure remarks reveal Trump's resource imperialism agenda

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/oil-seizure-remarks-reveal-trump-s-resource-imperialism-agen>
Oil seizure remarks reveal Trump's resource imperialism agenda: Report
Al Mayadeen English
December 25, 2025
------------------------------

Donald Trump's remarks on seizing Venezuelan oil reveal a broader imperial
strategy in which Washington uses sanctions, force, and coercion to
appropriate resources.

   - [image: Evana, an oil tanker, is docked at El Palito port in Puerto
   Cabello, Venezuela, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)]
   <https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2025/12/25/8bba295c-9545-4465-8a54-61ef8e9ae55a.jpg?width=1000>
   Evana, an oil tanker, is docked at El Palito port in Puerto Cabello,
   Venezuela, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Experts interviewed by *The Guardian* on Thursday said Donald Trump's
remarks about keeping oil seized from Venezuelan tankers expose an openly
imperialist logic that dismisses national sovereignty and treats the
resources of the Global South as prizes to be claimed by force.

The comments were made as Washington escalates its pressure campaign
against Venezuela, intensifying economic warfare under the banner of drug
enforcement. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has intercepted two
tankers carrying Venezuelan crude
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/oil-tanker-seized-by-us-near-venezuela-owned-by-china--bloom>
and
moved to pursue a third, while amplifying accusations against President
Nicolás Maduro in what critics describe as a familiar strategy of political
destabilization.

Observers argue the narrative closely resembles past US-led interventions,
where security claims and moral panic mask underlying economic interests.
This month, the administration went so far as to describe fentanyl
allegedly linked to Venezuela as a "weapon of mass destruction," language
critics say deliberately echoes the false pretexts used to justify the
invasion of Iraq
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/haditha-massacre--us-troops-newly-implicated-in-civilian-mur>
.
'Maybe we will sell it, maybe we will keep it'

On Monday, Trump openly suggested that oil taken from Venezuelan vessels
could be absorbed into US hands. "Maybe we will sell it, maybe we will keep
it," he told reporters. "Maybe we'll use it in the strategic reserves.
We're keeping the ships also."

Analysts say the statement strips away any pretense of legality or
international norms, reinforcing a long-articulated belief that US power
grants Washington the right to appropriate other nations' wealth. Patrick
Bigger, co-director of the Transition Security Project, characterized the
administration's approach as one based on coercion and domination rather
than diplomacy.

"The administration's global energy policy is mostly about using the threat
of violence or the withholding of aid to secure the inputs for the 'most of
the above' energy strategy," which excludes only solar and wind, Bigger
said.
Oil As Spoils

Trump's embrace of resource seizure is not new. During his first
presidential campaign, he repeatedly claimed that while the Iraq war may
have been a mistake, the United States should have taken Iraq's oil
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/kurdistan-oil-firms-reach-deal-with-baghdad-to-resume-export>as
repayment.

"You win the war and you take it," he said in a 2015 interview with *ABC*.
"You're not stealing anything … We're reimbursing ourselves."

He repeated the claim a year later, asserting that US control over oil
would have prevented the rise of ISIS. "If we would have taken the oil, you
wouldn't have ISIS, because ISIS formed with the power and the wealth of
that oil," he said during an* NBC News* forum.

The same rationale later appeared in Syria, where Trump explicitly tied US
troop deployments
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/pentagon-says-around-1-500-us-troops-still-in-syria>
to control of eastern oilfields. "We've secured the oil, and, therefore, a
small number of US troops will remain in the area where they have the oil,
and we're going to be protecting it, and we'll be deciding what we're going
to do with it in the future," he said in October 2019, later suggesting
that Exxon Mobil could be brought in to exploit the fields, remarks widely
criticized as an admission of occupation motivated by profit rather than
security.
Sanctions, Seizures, Strategic Resources

Beyond openly claiming resources, Trump has also relied on sanctions and
financial warfare to block independent states from benefiting from their
own natural wealth. Iran has been a central target, with sweeping US
measures aimed at strangling its oil exports and denying Tehran sovereign
control over its revenue
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us-sanctions-13-companies-supporting-iran-oil-sales>,
under the pretext of curbing its regional influence and nuclear program.

"Any Country or person who buys ANY AMOUNT of OIL or PETROCHEMICALS from
Iran will be subject to, immediately, Secondary Sanctions," Trump said in a
post on* Truth Social* this year.

Analysts say this pattern reflects a broader attempt to weaponize access to
global energy markets and enforce US dominance over strategic supply
chains. Trump's fixation on resources extends beyond oil to critical
minerals essential for batteries, electronics, electric vehicles, and
military systems, with pressure increasingly applied to allies as well as
adversaries.
Arctic Grabs

His repeated threats toward Greenland, an autonomous territory under Danish
sovereignty, have alarmed European officials and indigenous communities
alike. Earlier this year, Trump said the United States needs the island
"very badly" for "national security and international security" reasons,
refusing to rule out the use of force and appointing a special envoy in a
move that sparked diplomatic outrage
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/eu-backs-greenland-after-trump-appoints-us-envoy-to-island>
in Denmark.

Greenland contains substantial deposits of cobalt, nickel, copper, lithium
and other strategic minerals. US officials have reportedly explored taking
a direct stake in the island's largest rare-earth mining project.

Vice President JD Vance framed the issue in explicitly competitive terms
earlier this year, warning that China and Russia were "interested in the
minerals of the Arctic territories," and adding: "We need to ensure that
America is leading in the Arctic, because if we don't, other nations will
fill the gap."
Coercive Energy

In April, Washington applied similar leverage in Eastern Europe, concluding
an agreement granting the United States preferential access to Ukrainian
minerals
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/Economy/ukraine-minerals-deal-no-match-for-china-s-supply-grip--scmp>
and uranium in exchange for continued military support, a move critics say
ties sovereignty over natural resources directly to wartime dependence.

Where direct control has proved politically costly, Trump has pressed
allied governments to expand fossil fuel extraction in line with US
interests. In September, he urged Britain to intensify drilling in the
North Sea, accusing its government of making it "impossible for people to
drill."

That same month, Trump laid out an aggressively anti-climate worldview
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/environment/trump-admin-removes-climate-crisis-mentions-from-government>
in a speech at the United Nations, dismissing environmental policy and
warning countries against transitioning away from fossil fuels.

"If you don't get away from this green scam, your country is going to
fail," he said. "You need strong borders and traditional energy sources if
you are going to be great again."
China Rivalry Drives Resource Control

For many analysts, rising confrontation with China forms the structural
backdrop to this posture. Adam Hanieh, author of *Crude Capitalism: Oil,
Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market*, argued that US-China
rivalry is intensifying Washington's drive to dominate energy, minerals,
and industrial chokepoints worldwide.

"US-China rivalry is pushing the US to attempt to exert control over
various energy and industrial supply chains," Hanieh said, stressing that
Trump's approach differs less in substance than in tone.

"I think Trump's difference with other US administrations is mostly
stylistic," he added. "Previous administrations pursued the same strategic
control of energy, minerals and chokepoints, but cloaked it in
multilateralism and 'market stability', whereas Trump voices the extractive
logic directly."

*Read more: Putin reaffirms support for Venezuela in holiday letter to
Maduro
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/putin-reaffirms-support-for-venezuela-in-holiday-letter-to-m>*
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