White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump reserves the right to use the U.S. military to protect Americans in Venezuela who could be working with the country's oil industry following the ouster of dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Leavitt confirmed during Wednesday's briefing, which aired live on Newsmax, that Trump will meet with oil company executives at the White House on Friday to discuss ways to revive Venezuela's tattered oil sector after U.S. forces captured Maduro in Saturday's raid.
The CEOs of ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, as well as a representative from Chevron — the only major U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela — are expected to attend the meeting, according to CNBC.
Leavitt was asked whether the administration is considering using the military to protect Americans who might be working to help rebuild Venezuela's oil industry.
"The president, of course, reserves the right to use the United States military if necessary," she said. "It's not something he wants to do. Diplomacy is always the first option.
"As you saw, he tried that with Nicolas Maduro, but unfortunately he was an illegitimate dictator and an unserious person. And so, President Trump authorized this law enforcement operation. And now Nicolas Maduro is sitting in a prison cell in New York.
"So, certainly the president is going to do what's in the best interest of the American people. And that includes workers from our energy and oil industry, as well."
Raising crude oil output from Venezuela, which holds the world's largest oil reserves, is a top objective for Trump after Maduro was brought to the U.S. to face federal drug charges.
Although the U.S. has established a substantial naval blockade in the Caribbean preventing sanctioned oil tankers from entering or departing Venezuelan waters, Leavitt said no U.S. troops are there.
Trump wrote Tuesday night on Truth Social that the "interim authorities" in Venezuela would turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S. to be sold at market prices. Based on current oil prices, that oil would be worth $1.7 billion to $3 billion.
"We're going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela first, this backed-up stored oil, and then indefinitely going forward, we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace," Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday at Goldman Sachs' annual energy conference in Miami. "We will have [the] U.S. as the supplier of diluent that's got to go down there to enable that production.
"We're going to have that flowing again. And as we make progress with the government, we'll enable the importing of parts and equipment and services to kind of prevent the industry from collapsing, stabilize the production, and then as quickly as possible start to see it growing again.
"And of course, in the long run, create the conditions that the major American companies that were there before — maybe that weren't there before, but want to be there — will go in. The resources are immense. This should be a wealthy, prosperous, peaceful energy powerhouse."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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