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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Oil seizure remarks reveal Trump's resource imperialism agenda: Report</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Al Mayadeen English</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">December 25, 2025</div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><p>Donald
Trump's remarks on seizing Venezuelan oil reveal a broader imperial
strategy in which Washington uses sanctions, force, and coercion to
appropriate resources.</p><div><ul id="gmail-content-slick-0"><div aria-hidden="false"><li>
<a href="https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2025/12/25/8bba295c-9545-4465-8a54-61ef8e9ae55a.jpg?width=1000" tabindex="0"><img src="https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2025/12/25/8bba295c-9545-4465-8a54-61ef8e9ae55a.jpg?width=1000&preset=w700" alt="Evana, an oil tanker, is docked at El Palito port in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"></a>
Evana, an oil tanker, is docked at El Palito port in Puerto
Cabello, Venezuela, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
</li></div></ul>
<p>Experts interviewed by <em>The Guardian</em> 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.</p>
<p>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<a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/oil-tanker-seized-by-us-near-venezuela-owned-by-china--bloom"> two tankers carrying Venezuelan crude</a> and
moved to pursue a third, while amplifying accusations against President
Nicolás Maduro in what critics describe as a familiar strategy of
political destabilization.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/haditha-massacre--us-troops-newly-implicated-in-civilian-mur">the invasion of Iraq</a>.</p>
<h2>'Maybe we will sell it, maybe we will keep it'</h2>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<h2>Oil As Spoils</h2>
<p>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<a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/kurdistan-oil-firms-reach-deal-with-baghdad-to-resume-export"> Iraq's oil </a>as repayment.</p>
<p>"You win the war and you take it," he said in a 2015 interview with <em>ABC</em>. "You're not stealing anything \u2026 We're reimbursing ourselves."</p>
<p>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<em> NBC News</em> forum.</p>
<p>The same rationale later appeared in Syria, where Trump explicitly tied <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/pentagon-says-around-1-500-us-troops-still-in-syria">US troop deployments</a>
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.</p>
<h2>Sanctions, Seizures, Strategic Resources</h2>
<p>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 <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us-sanctions-13-companies-supporting-iran-oil-sales">sovereign control over its revenue</a>, under the pretext of curbing its regional influence and nuclear program.</p>
<p>"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<em> Truth Social</em> this year.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Arctic Grabs</h2>
<p>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 <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/eu-backs-greenland-after-trump-appoints-us-envoy-to-island">sparked diplomatic outrage</a> in Denmark.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<h2>Coercive Energy</h2>
<p>In April, Washington applied similar leverage in Eastern Europe,
concluding an agreement granting the United States preferential access
to <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/Economy/ukraine-minerals-deal-no-match-for-china-s-supply-grip--scmp">Ukrainian minerals</a>
and uranium in exchange for continued military support, a move critics
say ties sovereignty over natural resources directly to wartime
dependence.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>That same month, Trump laid out an aggressively <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/environment/trump-admin-removes-climate-crisis-mentions-from-government">anti-climate worldview</a>
in a speech at the United Nations, dismissing environmental policy and
warning countries against transitioning away from fossil fuels.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<h2>China Rivalry Drives Resource Control</h2>
<p>For many analysts, rising confrontation with China forms the structural backdrop to this posture. Adam Hanieh, author of <em>Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market</em>,
argued that US-China rivalry is intensifying Washington's drive to
dominate energy, minerals, and industrial chokepoints worldwide.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p><strong>Read more: <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/putin-reaffirms-support-for-venezuela-in-holiday-letter-to-m">Putin reaffirms support for Venezuela in holiday letter to Maduro</a></strong></p></div></div></div>
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