Joe Scarborough, host of the morning show “Morning Joe,” reported his telephone conversation with Trump about the intervention this way.
— I told him, “Mr. President, when you say, and I quote, 'we're going to run everything,' it obviously raises deep concerns because of the disaster in Iraq. The president's response was, 'Joe, the difference between Iraq and this is that Bush didn't keep the oil. We'll keep the oil,'” said the columnist and former Republican congressman. He added that he was curious what Zbigniew Brzezinski, the father of the program's co-host Mika Brzezinski, would think about it.
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What are the differences between US interventions in Iraq and Venezuela?
What did Trump say about oil in Venezuela?
What signals is the US sending to Russia and China?
What does Marco Rubio think about the operation in Venezuela?
Trump also spoke at length about the excellence of the military operation in Venezuela and emphasized that it sent a strong message about America's strength to the leaders of Russia, Iran and China.
The US president has repeatedly said that the mistake of the US invasion of Iraq was, among other things, that the US did not take over Iraqi oil deposits. In his statements after the capture of Nicolas Maduro, he also focused mainly on the benefits that the United States will achieve from the revitalization of the Venezuelan oil sector.
Marco Rubio spoke out. “A Small Handful of Pirates”
In an interview with NBC on Monday, he announced that American oil companies may receive compensation from the state for their investments in Venezuela. According to, among others, Politico, however, American companies are not willing to return to the country, also due to the political risk.
Trump's emphasis on the issue of raw materials deposits differs from the approach presented by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who emphasized in Sunday interviews that Saturday's operation “was not about securing oil fields.” Rubio also announced that he wants the profits from oil extraction to go to Venezuelans and not be stolen by “a small handful of pirates.”
