The Problem with Trump's Obsession with Oil
Like his 19th century imperialism, Trump's obsession with oil is shortsighted, counterproductive, and ultimately self-defeating.
I’ve said it before: Trump loves the 19th century. And his military intervention in Venezuela was all 19th century. He looked back to the Monroe Doctrine that was announced more than 200 years ago as a justification for his decision to intervene. And it was another 19th century discovery that motivated his decision to do so. I’m talking about oil.
But as I argue in my latest “From Across the Pond” column in Politico Europe, Trump’s obsession with oil is peaking just as oil is losing its economic luster. And that’s a problem.
In justifying his military operation against Venezuela, U.S. President Donald Trump reached back in time over two centuries and grabbed hold of the Monroe Doctrine. But it’s another 19th-century interest that propelled his extraordinary gambit in the first place — oil.
According to the New York Times, what started as an effort to press the Venezuelan regime to cede power and end the flow of drugs and immigrants into the U.S., began shifting into a determination to seize the country’s oil last fall. And the president was the driving force behind this shift.
That’s hardly surprising though — Trump has been obsessed with oil for decades, even as most of the world is actively trying to leave it behind.
As far back as the 1980s, Trump was complaining about the U.S. protecting Japan, Saudi Arabia and others to secure the free flow of oil. “The world is laughing at America’s politicians as we protect ships we don’t own, carrying oil we don’t need, destined for allies who won’t help,” he wrote in a 1987 newspaper ad.
Having supported the Iraq War from the outset, he later complained that the U.S. hadn’t sufficiently benefited from it. “I would take the oil,” he told the Wall Street Journal in 2011. “I would not leave Iraq and let Iran take the oil.” That same year, he also dismissed humanitarian concerns in Libya, saying: “I am only interested in Libya if we take the oil.”
Read the entire article on Politico Europe.