Washington seizes Venezuela's oil, then says Venezuela gave it to Americans as a gift.

…(cont) Two days later, on September 1, a federal watchdog filed a different number. The Treasury Inspector General reported that IRS audit revenue had fallen 35 percent for the year, after the administration cut the staff that audits the wealthiest filers — the same 35 percent that, in the other filing, was the Pentagon's new cut of Venezuelan oil. One 35 percent arrived as a gift, announced. The other arrived because a watchdog went looking.

Five days later, on September 6, the Energy Secretary filed his own word for the arrangement. He denied the United States had stolen the oil, one hour after telling reporters Venezuela was now "forced to work" with Washington. Not a gift, in that filing. A deal, extracted.

The price column closed out the same week before anyone's word had settled. Over Labor Day weekend, American drivers paid $4.15 a gallon, a record, for gasoline pulled from a market the government had told them would get cheaper once the gift arrived.

The gift and the seizure are the same barrel, entered twice: once as a windfall booked to the Pentagon's column, once as a record charged to the driver at the pump. Only the first entry gets a Truth Social post.

This week the president filed the newest word for the same barrels. The sentence only balances if the barrel changes hands twice: once when Venezuela loses it, and once when Venezuela, stripped of its president and its oil, hands some of it over anyway. The receipts support only the first hand-off.