US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sunday denied that the Trump administration was stealing Venezuela's oil just one hour after boasting that the country is being "forced to work" with the United States. During a Sunday morning interview on ABC News, Wright was asked why he trusted interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, given…
Page F2From§Eachthe supper edition — 6 September 2026
Energy Secretary boasts Venezuela is 'forced to work' with US, denies stealing its oil an hour later
“They flew in and hauled off a foreign president on drug charges, cut themselves majority control of 65 billion barrels of somebody else's oil, and the man running the deal calls the arrangement "forced" and "partnership" in the same sentence. That's not diplomacy, that's a stickup with a press release, and by the time Chevron's already expanding into the ground days after the ink dries, you know who's collecting the leverage and who's collecting the toll.”
“Leverage isn't theft, it's called statecraft — every negotiation has leverage, that's practically the definition of a deal. "Forced," "partnership," whatever, the Secretary's using two words for one beautiful outcome: cheaper gas for hardworking Americans in twelve to twenty-four months, and honestly if that's not "ahead of schedule" I don't know what — did I say that? That doesn't sound like me, strike that, we're not stealing anything, we're partnering.”
The receipts
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday that the U.S. has “a lot of leverage” over Venezuela after the Trump administration reached a deal with the latter government to grant it control of more than 65 billion barrels of oil.
The U.S. has struck a deal to take majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves, nine months after the U.S. military abducted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in a raid on Caracas and two months after The New York Times revealed that U.S.
· White House unveils new details of Venezuela agreement from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Chevron to expand in Venezuela, days after the U.S. and Venezuela strike oil deal from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Venezuelan oil flows will lower gas prices in 12-24 months, Wright says in Caracas from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.