Trump's goals in kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro became clearer today with statements he made on social media along with a Congressional briefing with lawmakers with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio stated: "We are going to take between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil. We’re going to sell it in the marketplace at market rates, not at the discounts Venezuela was getting." Well, that's very interesting, because before the invasion the U.S. was purchasing more than just "between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil". In 2024 the U.S. was purchasing 220,000 barrels of oil per day, which was an increase of 64% over 2023, and a total of over 91 million barrels of oil. The U.S. purchase of Venezuelan oil continued to increase in 2025, which according to one report was a 220% increase. So if the U.S. is now only going to import "between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil", that is a significant DECREASE. Trump also told Venezuela to stop exporting oil to China and Russia, or anybody else for that matter. China has been buying as much oil from Venezuela than almost all of the other countries in the world combined. That is a LOT of oil that the Trump Administration is attempting to take out of the market. Why would they do that? To get oil prices to increase, and try to preserve the Petro Dollar.

Monetary triage...