Trump Excludes Exxon from Venezuela Oil, (Ex)Propriation a Coincidence?
Bloomberg breathlessly reports Donald Trump's inclination to 'keep Exxon out' of his purported $100 billion plan to 'rebuild' Venezuela's oil industry. Trump claims Exxon's response 'displeased' him. What this mainstream analysis conveniently sidesteps is the very inconvenient history of US oil giants and Venezuela. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips were famously ejected from Venezuela after Hugo
Chávez nationalized oil assets in 2007, culminating in billions of dollars in arbitration rulings against Venezuela. (See: The Chávez government's historical actions documented in countless international reports.) So, Trump — a master of the deal, as he insists — is 'displeased' that Exxon isn't rushing to reinvest tens of billions into a country that previously seized its assets. One might wonder
if this 'displeasure' isn't less about a 'plan' and more about the historical difficulty of strong-arming a sovereign nation that has, in the past, dared to assert control over its own resources. Perhaps a company that lost billions isn't eager for a repeat performance, or perhaps somebody's just playing hardball to get a sweeter deal under the guise of an 'exclusion.' The only constant is, US oil
interests remain paramount. (Source: Bloomberg Politics, referenced January 12, 2026 article).