Transcript: Trump Meets Oil Execs on Venezuela @ White House Summit

We had some great people there, too, by the way. But we had a great first term. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country in the first term, but this is blowing it away. And you haven’t seen anything yet. Everyone has been shocked by the numbers—5.4 percent GDP. And that’s despite the fact that we were badly hurt by the Democrat shutdown, of which they’d like to see if they could shut it down again.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who’s fantastic. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, recommended by Doug as being the greatest oilman anywhere in the world, because I wanted Doug for that job—energy. And Doug said, “No, sir, there’s a man named Chris Wright.” I said, “Who the hell is Chris Wright?” He said he’s the most talented oilman anywhere in the world. I doubt you can get him because, typically, oilmen make a lot of money—and women. They make a lot of money, but Chris came. You took one of the greatest salary cuts, probably, in history, Chris. But he’s a fantastic person, loves our country, and many other important members of this team. And I want to thank them for their efforts.

The Maduro Operation and Venezuela’s Future

As you know, last week, the United States Armed Forces performed one of the most spectacular military operations in American history, apprehending the outlaw dictator Nicolás Maduro for his crimes against the United States, crimes for which he has now been indicted and is in federal court awaiting trial. And he killed many people—millions of people, actually—and allowed jails, prisons, mental institutions, insane asylums, drug dealers, drug addicts to pour into our country, totally unchecked because of sleepy Joe Biden’s policy of open borders. The stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. We’re getting them all out.

The departure of Maduro makes it possible—an incredible future for both nations, Venezuela and the United States, in which we will more closely integrate the economies of two major energy powers in the Western Hemisphere. Energy coming out of Venezuela was very small. One of the things the United States gets out of this will be even lower energy prices. We have people now getting gasoline for $1.99, $1.96, $1.95, $1.92 yesterday, somebody. And it used to be $3.50, $4, $5 a gallon. Think of that—$1.99.

Reclaiming Stolen American Assets

Decades ago, the United States built Venezuela’s oil industry at tremendous expense with American-skilled technology, know-how, and dollars. But those assets were stolen from us. And we had Presidents who did nothing about it. This President is much different than your other Presidents. They did nothing about it. They stole it. Some of the people in this room were a little bit younger when that happened, but not that much younger. It wasn’t that long ago. But they stole our assets like we were babies. And the United States said absolutely nothing about it.

So now we’re doing everything about it. Now we’re doing 500 percent about it. But it’s a long time after the act took place.

So they stole from us, and it was taken by socialists and communists at the time. And Venezuela was going bad, really bad. And as much oil as they have, they’re producing almost nothing. Almost nothing. Which is just the system. So we’re really — if you look at it, we’re taking back what was taken from us. They took our oil industry. We built that entire oil industry. It started a long time ago, but they took it, and they were very ungracious to this country. But now they’re being very nice.

Rebuilding Venezuela’s Energy Infrastructure

American companies will have the opportunity to rebuild Venezuela’s rotting energy infrastructure and eventually increase oil production to levels never, ever seen before. When you add Venezuela and the United States together, we have 55 percent of the oil in the world. The United States is number one. We have them drilling. “Drill, baby, drill” was my campaign. And Doug and Chris, I think we’re setting records on drilling right now and taking oil without Venezuela. That’s how we’re getting the oil prices down.

The plan is for them to spend — meaning our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100 billion of their money — not the government’s money. They don’t need government money. But they need government protection and need government security that, when they spend all this money, it’s going to be there so they get their money back and make a very nice return.

The plan is for them to spend at least $100 billion to rebuild the capacity and the infrastructure necessary. Venezuela has also agreed that the United States will immediately begin refining and selling up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil, which will continue indefinitely. We’re all set to do it. We have the refining capacity. It was actually based very much on the Venezuelan oil, which is a heavy oil. Very good oil. Great oil. It’s fantastic for certain things, like asphalt roads. Best there is in the world for asphalt roads and other things.

Treasured Partners in Venezuela’s Recovery

All of the companies here today are going to be treasured partners in bringing the nation of Venezuela back to life, restoring its economy, and generating great wealth for their companies and for their people, and also great wealth for the American people. And tremendous wealth for the companies that are going in — the companies that are going in. And if you don’t want to go in, just let me know because I got 25 people that aren’t here today that are willing to take your place.

So, I just want to thank — these are people that I either know or I know of by reading lots of business magazines and journals and papers. These are the greatest oil people anywhere in the world. Harold Hamm, I see, is here. Harold, you know, there’s a story about Harold Hamm that he could look at a piece of land, put a straw into the land, and oil pours out. Is that true about you? Whereas some of you guys have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to find that oil. So we can’t let that story be true. But they say, Harold puts a straw into the land and oil comes gushing out. So you’re not a big R&D person, are you, huh? He’s called “Instinct for Oil.” Now, he’s got other problems, but we won’t talk about those problems. But he’s been a great supporter of mine for a long time, haven’t you, Harold? So congratulations.

But we have — and I think Harold would agree — we have the greatest oilmen and women anywhere in the world sitting in this room right now. And we have a lot of people that will be back to see us sometime next week. We’re going to have another meeting for another group. But we’re going to do this very quickly. We can have this done almost immediately.

So I’d like to thank you all for being here. I’d like to invite Vice President Vance to say a few words, followed by Secretaries Rubio, Bergman, Wright.

And then we’ll have a few words from representatives that are here to discuss their ideas. A couple of them.

Trump Recognizes Oil Executives in Attendance

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We have Chevron, which has been — where’s Chevron? Where are you? Mr. Vance. Far right. No, I thought you’d have a better location. You were the only one that was there for all that. I used to call you and say, what the hell is going on with Venezuela? He stuck it out. I don’t know if you made money or not, but you stuck it out. They got to give you a lot of credit for that. Mark Nelson, thank you very much.

Exxon CEO Darren Woods. Darren, thank you very much. How’s Exxon doing? Okay? They’ll do a lot better now, won’t they? Huh? Exxon’s been amazing. It’s been an amazing company.

And ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance. Thank you very much.

So you guys could say something, and then we’ll take some questions from the press. And if anybody else would like to speak, we’ll have you speak. We have all the time in the world. This is a big subject. This is massive wealth. And more importantly than massive wealth, it leads to lower taxes and a lot of jobs for Americans and for Venezuelans, but for Americans in this case.

And I just, again, appreciate you all being here. And I’d like to ask J.D. to say a few words, please. Thank you.

Vice President JD Vance Remarks

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Thank you, Mr. President. And thanks to everybody for being here. You know, as a Marine Corps veteran for my entire lifetime, presidents, and let’s be honest, they were Democrats and Republicans, would send the American military to far off places. They would get us involved in these endless quagmires. They would lose hundreds or thousands of American lives. And the American people would get nothing out of these misadventures.

And now you have an American president who’s empowered the American military to stop the flow of drugs into our country and to ensure that we, as opposed to our adversaries, control one of the great energy reserves that exist anywhere in the entire world. And he did it without losing a single American life in the process.

It was an amazing operation. It’s going to make our country richer. It’s going to make our country more powerful. It’s going to make our country safer. And it’s going to lead to the decline, the further decline of drug overdose deaths in the United States of America. An amazing thing. And I’m happy to be here to talk about how we can make it an even bigger and better operation for the American people. Thank you, sir.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Marco.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you, Mr. President. And I think this is a reminder that everything this President does, everything President Trump does is with the American people in mind. It was not in the national interest or national security of the United States and of our people to have in our own hemisphere a country not just with vast energy reserves, but controlled by an indicted narco-trafficker who flooded our country with illegal immigration, including drug gang members, flooded our country, openly cooperated with drug gangs and, by the way, opened up and stole the wealth of that country to fund a repressive regime and also benefit adversaries such as Iran.

All of that is now changing as part of this process. The first phase, of course, is the phase we’re in now, which is the stabilization phase. We did not want to see destabilization in the country. We’re working very cooperatively with the interim authorities there to provide a market for the sale of the wealth of Venezuela in such a way that benefits the people, both of the United States but also the people of Venezuela.

And as a reminder to everyone, the President announced this just two days ago. Every penny — everything they buy with the money that they’re making from the oil now, Mr. President, will be bought from America. And that includes everything from equipment for the oil industry to food to medicine and everything in between.

The second will be a phase of recovery, and then some of these phases will interlap. And that is to have a normal economy again, where the money goes to the benefit of people, not the benefit of our adversaries or the benefit of elements in that country and around the world that are against our interests, at the same time as a process of reconciliation has to happen internally among the different sectors of society and politics and the like.

And finally, the third phase, which is the most important of the three, is when the country fully transitions into a normal country that we have strong economic and diplomatic relations with, that is friendly towards the United States, that’s not a foothold for our adversaries, that serves our interests, but also the interests of the people. It will be a country that is wealthy, a country that is prosperous for the people, not for a handful of criminals, but also a country that is supportive of our interests in the region and throughout the world. And we thank you, Mr. President, and the team you’ve assembled that have brought us to this point. A lot of work remains important work, but this is historic.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay. Thank you very much. Doug.

Doug Burgum on Leadership and Security

DOUG BURGUM: Well, Mr. President, I want to thank you for your leadership, not just as President, but as Commander-in-Chief. The boldness, the execution, the breathtakingly precise work that you’ve delivered both in Iran back in June and here has changed the field for the whole world. And you always ran about the idea of peace and prosperity. And in Venezuela, as you know, this is a playground for every bad actor in the world. We had Russians, Iran, terror groups, all of them profiting from this criminal organization that was pretending to run the country. That makes America safer. You’ve secured the border, we’re stopping the flow of drugs, and now with the normalization of relationships on an economic basis, it’s going to mean tremendously for the prosperity of the American people.

So I just want to say again, congratulations to you and to the entire leadership team. It’s been an amazing, historic week on the scale of things that we haven’t seen perhaps for 125 years in terms of the U.S. exerting its influence over Latin America in a way that’s going to make a change for generations.

And on behalf of all the oil executives that are here today, Chris and I want to say thank you to all of you. It’s your technology, your innovation that has put America in the place where today we are the most energy-dominant country in the world. And that position is what’s allowed us to take the action that we’re taking with statecraft, with military action. None of that would happen if we were dependent on everybody else for energy. So you’re a big part of the reason that we’re able to move the way we are today. And we’re grateful that you’re here to be part of the solution going forward.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you, Doug. And you are doing a fantastic job and we appreciate it. Everybody appreciates it. They know who’s doing well. Chris Wright?

Chris Wright on Resources and Development

CHRIS WRIGHT: Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, what we’ve seen in the last week is leadership matters and credibility matters. Venezuelan oil has been sanctioned for many years, and the oil just flew—you know, those sanctions were not enforced. That oil just floated out, trafficked by bad actors of the world. The resources weren’t gone to a central place. The corruption and decline of Venezuela has been a crisis for the people of Venezuela and, as Secretary Rubio said, massive spillover effects in the United States—in crime, in drugs, in kidnappings.

And in taking a huge resource base and making it not exploited, not developed, the whole world is a poorer, less opportunity-rich place because of that. When you have materials underground—they’ve been underground for a million years. That does not make them a resource. That does not make them valuable for your country, your people or the world.

They only become a resource with technology, with capital, with rule of law and a system of governance that encourages the harvesting of those resources to make the better world. And we see here the dramatic contrast between the United States, which may have less oil underground than Venezuela. We have 20 times the production of Venezuela, 20 times the impact of human betterment, massively better quality of living here in the United States.

That was at risk under the last administration. We’ve seen a lot of attacks on the energy that makes the world go round. President Trump’s election has removed those risks, has embraced reality about how the world is energized. And we are at record production of oil in the United States, record production in natural gas in the United States. We’ve seen a meaningful decline in gasoline prices, diesel prices, travel prices because of jet fuel.

And now President Trump is taking the genius of a different way to try to solve a 25-year festering problem in Venezuela that all the traditional things have not worked. But ordering both a tremendous military operation to remove the heads of a criminal organization masquerading as a government, and then to use the power of our military not to fire bullets, but to stop the flow of Venezuelan oil to the world, immediately gave us leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela and has allowed us to be in this position today, where the actions of this government can massively improve Venezuela for the better.

And the bigger impact is to massively improve the quality of life, affordability, safety and security of the United States. Very proud to be here. And I will turn it over to Mark Nelson, who is the Vice Chairman of Chevron. Chevron has been in Venezuela for over 100 years, continuously. Mike Wirth, the CEO, had a knee replacement recently. He’s not here. Mark is a tremendous leader in our industry. And I’ll turn it over to him.

Chevron Vice Chairman Mark Nelson Speaks

MARK NELSON: Thank you, Secretary Wright. Again, I’ll send Mike Wirth’s regrets. He really wanted to be here, Mr. President. On his behalf, I have three very quick thank yous and an assurance I’d like to provide you all.

The first thank you, Mr. President, is to you. It’s thank you for convening this gathering. It’s thank you for your leadership. And thank you for continuing to keep American energy domination in the forefront. So thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much.

MARK NELSON: The second thank you, actually, is to the Cabinet. So Secretary Rubio, Secretary Burgum, Secretary Wright, your ability and commitment to continue to engage with the parties around the table, to keep the world working, is greatly appreciated. So thank you. Thank you for that.

And the final thank you actually would go to our Venezuelan employees of Chevron. They have been working tirelessly to operate safely, protect the environment in-country. And their dedication and skill will help us in this next chapter.

And finally, I’ll close with the assurance. For more than a century, Chevron has been a part of Venezuela’s past. We are certainly committed to its present. And we very much look forward, as a proud American company, to help it build a better future. And so, Mr. President, thank you for your leadership.

President Trump Acknowledges Chevron’s Commitment

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You really suffered there. You stuck it out. A lot of people left. A lot of big companies left. Some of the people — many of the people sitting at this table left because of the safety risk and other risks. But you really — you stuck it out. I give you credit for that. Sometimes it was hard.

I remember, six months ago, I told you to stay. Just stay. Things are going to happen. You’ll be very happy. I didn’t know they were going to happen this fast or this conclusively. One thing I think everyone has to know is that if we didn’t do this, China or Russia would have done it.

And if China or Russia were a next-door neighbor — because, essentially, this is not around the other parts of the world so far away, where you fly an airplane for 24 hours before you get there. This is sort of a next-door neighbor, if you think about it. And I told China and I told Russia, we get along with you very well, we like you very much, and we don’t want you there. Not going to be there.

And if we didn’t do this, China would have been there and Russia would have been there. Maybe they both would have been there together, but they’re not going to be there now. One thing I will tell them, and I will tell you, that we are open for business. China can buy all the oil they want from us there or in the United States. Russia can get all the oil they need from us. And they do like oil, even though they produce a lot of it. But China and Russia and everybody else is able to go, and we’ll be open for business almost immediately.

I have a feeling the $100 million will be spent very, very — $100 billion will be spent very, very rapidly by these very big, powerful, and rich companies. And I think they’re going to be able to rebuild the infrastructure. And I hope it’s going to be brand new, as opposed to a rehab, because I know the tremendous difference between the new and the not-so-new in your industry. The new is much more beautiful, much better in every way, and actually much smaller. It’s like everything else — gets smaller and stronger. It’s a combination of smaller, better, and stronger.

So I hope you’re going to build all brand-new stuff, rip out the old crap that’s been there for so many years, and do it the right way. You’re going to be there a long time, if we make a deal. If we make a deal, you’re going to be there a long time. If we don’t make a deal, you won’t be there at all. It’s sort of interesting. But again, China and Russia would have been there if we didn’t do this.

No Second Wave Necessary

And the other thing — people ask about the second wave. I don’t think it’s going to be necessary. We have an armada — a giant armada, like nobody has ever seen in that part of the world. And it’s stationed off the coast. And we are getting along so well with the people that are involved in representing Venezuela that I don’t think we’re going to have any — I don’t think it’s going to be necessary to do the second wave.

We were planning on a second wave, but the first wave was so powerful and so good and so strong. And, frankly, the people in the country, they really — they did the right thing. They were smart. They did the right thing. They didn’t want to go through a second wave. But we’ve got a tremendous number of the most powerful ships in the world right there. I don’t think we’re going to have to use that. I’m happy to say that. I don’t think we’re going to have to use that at all.

Oil Executives Address the Press

PRESIDENT TRUMP: If I could ask Chevron, you did a great job. I want to thank you. And ExxonMobil, if you would say a few words. And then followed by Conoco — great companies, massive companies, great companies. Exxon, please.

EXXONMOBIL EXECUTIVE: Sure. Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate the invitation and the opportunity, frankly, for the entire industry to show up and provide a perspective. Frankly, we’ve been kind of unresponsive to the press regarding Venezuela. But I guess today’s the opportunity to address the press directly with respect to a number of questions that have been asked of ExxonMobil. First and foremost, obviously, is the interest that we have in Venezuela.

And I think the way I would position that, I think one of the reasons why we see many of the industry players here is we’re in a depletion business for a product that is in great demand and will be in demand for many, many, many decades to come. And as a depletion business, the biggest challenge we have is finding resources.

There’s an opportunity in Venezuela with all the resources there is we don’t have that challenge of finding. We have the challenge of developing those resources. So I think it’s in the best interest of these companies and, frankly, society as a whole for the industry to be interested in understanding what the opportunity here represents.

ExxonMobil’s Long-Term Investment Philosophy

I’ll just share a philosophy that ExxonMobil has when we enter countries, because we do business all around the world in a number of different regimes. And we take a very long-term perspective. The investments that we make span decades and decades. So we do not go into any opportunity with a short mindset, short-term mindset.

There’s a value proposition that we have to meet. It has to be a win-win-win proposition. Obviously, it has to be a win for the company and our shareholders and generate a return for the investments that we make. It has to be a win for the government. The resources are an important source of revenue that helps support the people of the places that we do business. And it has to be a win for the people. We have to be wanted there and to be a good neighbor.

Those three things ensure a stable, long-term platform for the large investments that we make for the long term.

ExxonMobil’s History in Venezuela

Venezuela in particular, we have a very long history in Venezuela. In fact, we first got into Venezuela back in the 1940s. We’ve had our assets seized there twice and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we’ve historically seen here and what is currently the state.

If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable and so significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system. There has to be durable investment protections and there has to be a change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country.

We’re confident that with this administration and President Trump working hand-in-hand with the Venezuelan government that those changes can be put in place. And with respect to the Venezuelan government, that perspective we don’t have a view on, we haven’t talked to the Venezuelan government and obviously we have yet to assess the people’s perspective with respect to ExxonMobil entering the country.

Short-Term Actions and Next Steps

In the short term, there are things that can be done while these longer term issues are being worked. For us, we haven’t been in the country for almost 20 years. We think it’s absolutely critical in the short term that we get a technical team in place to assess the current state of the industry and the assets to understand what would be involved to help the people of Venezuela get production back on the market.

With the invitation of the Venezuelan government and with appropriate security guarantees, we are ready to put a team on the ground there. We also have an integrated set of capabilities from production to refining to trading and I think we can be of assistance to getting the Venezuelan crude to market and realizing a market price to help again with the financial situation in Venezuela.

So those are my short term perspective that I have. I’d say and be closed with a thank you, Mr. President, for the work that you’ve done to secure not only the national security but the energy security of the region. And then thank you, Secretary Rubio, Secretary Wright, Secretary Burgum, for your leadership in this matter. Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: How long would it take you, Darren, as Exxon to, if we make a deal, and if we make a deal, how long would it take you to get in there and get started?

Well, the first step, this technical team, we, as I talked with Secretary Wright earlier this week, we started from the beginning to put the team together so that if and when it was needed, we could hit the ground almost immediately. So we can hit the ground and within the next couple of weeks start the assessment. And then from there, we need to understand that’s what we want. We want speed and quality. That’s what we want.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you, Darren. And Conoco, Ryan.

RYAN (CONOCOPHILLIPS): Thank you, Mr. President. Appreciate the opportunity to be here, too. And you’ve assembled a great team and our congratulations as well for removing one of the terrible people in the world and bringing them to justice. It was quite amazing. I think you’ve given hope to the people of Venezuela again, which I think is quite remarkable. And we’ve been on the other end of that despot regime a long time. Our assets were expropriated. I had a little bit more hair when that happened. And, you know, I think we’re the largest non-sovereign credit holder in Venezuela today. So we’re in a little different situation, but I think your big and bold idea to use energy commerce instead of conflict is something that could make a real big difference in Venezuela. And we stand, our company certainly stands ready to help in that endeavor.

Encourage you to continue to think bigger and even bolder. And we’ve had some discussions with your energy team about that as well, as we think about the other people that need to be in this room and this discussion or the banks, and including probably the Ex-Im Bank, as we think about how the debt needs to be restructured and the financing to deliver the billions of dollars that are required to restore their energy infrastructure. And I think as we think that big and bold, we need to be also thinking about even restructuring the entire Venezuelan energy system, including PDVSA. And I think if we can do that and think bold, there’s an opportunity to be quick, fast, and restore the quality of what’s happened in Venezuela or what’s been lost in Venezuela over the course of the last 25 years. So thank you for this opportunity.

Trump on Moving Forward Without Past Losses

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. And you’ll get a lot of your money back. We’re going to start with an even plate, though. We’re not going to look at what people lost in the past, because that was their fault. That was a different president. We’re going to — we’re going to — you’re going to make a lot of money, but we’re not going to go back. You left a lot of money behind, I guess, huh? What number?

RYAN (CONOCOPHILLIPS): 12 billion.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: How much?

RYAN (CONOCOPHILLIPS): 12 billion.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, it’s a good write-off.

RYAN (CONOCOPHILLIPS): It’s already been written off.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s been written — all right, thank you. You’ll make it back, one way or the other. You’re all going to do very well, I think, really very well. Marco just gave me a note. Go back to Chevron. They want to discuss something. Go ahead. I’m going back to Chevron. Thank you, Marco.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Is there a question, Mr. President?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes. Go ahead, Marco. What was — what are you saying here?

Chevron’s Current Operations on the Ground

SECRETARY RUBIO: Mark, if you could update us on operations on the ground and with the appropriate approvals, what you might be able to achieve in the next 12 to 18 months. Give us a little view from the ground.

MARK (CHEVRON): You bet. You bet. So today, Chevron has 3,000 employees in four different joint ventures in Venezuela today. And over the past five to seven years, they’ve taken production from about 40,000 barrels a day to 240,000 barrels a day, essentially getting those facilities and that equipment up to standards that would be something that people in the room would be more accustomed to.

Given the work we’ve done with Secretary Wright and Secretary Burgum and even Secretary Besant, I think we have a path forward here very shortly to be able to increase our liftings from those joint ventures 100 percent, essentially effective immediately. We are also able to increase our production within our own disciplined investment schemes by about 50 percent just in the next 18 to 24 months. And that’s just leveraging what’s on the ground. So to Secretary Rubio’s comments about phase one, this is taking the momentum of improvements we’ve already made there locally and building on those and creating more momentum for the people of Venezuela.

Trump Questions Chevron’s On-the-Ground Advantage

THE PRESIDENT: Do you think you have an advantage being there? You know, you’ve been there by the skin of your teeth. It’s been tough for you to be there. But do you think you have an advantage over the other people in this room by the fact that you are there?

THE SECRETARY: Yeah, I think there are – Mr. President, I think there would be days where it didn’t feel like an advantage and there are days where it does feel like an advantage. But having people on the ground today that care desperately about the people of Venezuela and know how to operate the assets that are there is a definite advantage today.

THE PRESIDENT: Would you say the best locations are available, or would you say the best locations are already sort of worked, even though they’re in very bad shape? The best locations for finding oil, the best locations for oil.

THE SECRETARY: There are more opportunities than not, Mr. President. With 300 billion barrels of reserves and resources in-country, there are lots of opportunities for many companies.

Infrastructure: New Build vs. Rehabilitation

THE PRESIDENT: Will you be building new, or will you be using the old infrastructure that you have?

THE SECRETARY: Yeah, today it’s a little bit of a mix, but today it’s mostly us taking the equipment of today, getting it to the standards that we are accustomed to. To your comments about making it how it should be today, most of the investments that we’ve been making are about getting it up to our standards.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think you’re going to make an investment, but you’re going to get your money back very quickly, and that’s part of our thing. We’re going to have you get your money back fast, and then you’ll give a lot to Venezuela and to the United States after that. Okay? So you’ll be in good shape.

Harold Hamm on Venezuela’s Untapped Potential

THE PRESIDENT: Could I ask Harold Hamm to say a few words? He’s been a friend of mine for a long time, very amazing man, actually. Amazing energy person.

HAROLD HAMM: Well, thank you, Mr. President. It’s good to be here with so many dignified people, and this effort particularly. Thank you for your effort for what you’ve done here, taking this despot out of that area, and the world dealt with him way too long. Certainly our industry knows that this is a real jewel that can be developed for the people, for the people of Venezuela and also benefit the world.

And like Secretary Wright said, it has not been done. It’s not been done in the past, and they had a good chance at it, brought someone in that totally took it down, as everybody knows here, and that was Chavez, and we know what happened to him finally. But, you know, that ruined the industry in Venezuela, and all of us know how that ended very well, very wrongly. So, anyway, we’re glad to see what’s happened here and look forward for the opportunity for a lot of people in this room, but also for America and the country itself.

THE PRESIDENT: Are you going to be involved in going in? Because, you know, he’s in North Dakota, and he’s in Oklahoma, some incredible places. It’s a little bit different, but there’s no doubt about it. You won’t have to worry about this story too much here. You can just go at it. Are you going to be one of the participants?

SENATOR COONS: Well, certainly, you know, I’m an oil finder, like you said. You know, Barry Spitzer, you know, told that story.

THE PRESIDENT: He kind of exaggerated a little bit. It doesn’t come out quite that easily usually, but anyway, great story. I love it, but I love Barry. Barry’s the one that told me this. He’s a champion, you know, and in a lot of ways. So love that story. Certainly it excites me as an explorationist. You know, everybody has that in their blood, and you know it is a very exciting country and a lot of reserves. And so it’s got its challenges and the industry knows how to handle that. And like Darren said, you know, you go in with your eyes open and do the best you can with the team you got.

So you’re going to have something that they never had really here is tremendous security. You’re going to be very secure, very safe, physically safe in addition to financially safe. So it’s good to see you, Harold. Thank you very much.

Does anybody have anything to say before we get to the press?

Discussion on Cuba’s Future

REPORTER: What does Cuba have to do to avoid the same fate?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, Cuba’s in bad shape. Cuba relied on Venezuela for oil and for money, and nobody really knows what’s going to happen with Cuba. They’re doing very poorly. They’re really a third world all the way. And we have a lot of great Cuban Americans, and I would say Marco fits very solidly into that category. And I might ask you to say a few words about—we were discussing it before—Cuba is a very different, they don’t have energy, they don’t have oil. But they would live off of the oil from Venezuela, and they, what they do have is very strong people and very powerful people militarily, and they would protect the people running Venezuela. And they would take in a lot of money from Venezuela. And now they don’t have that. They won’t be taking in any money. So Marco, what do you think?

MARCO RUBIO: Well, I mean, the fundamental problem in Cuba is that it’s run by incompetent people that don’t know what an economy looks like, much less a functioning one. They’ve made a choice, and that is they would rather have political control over the people than they would have an economy that functions. And they’ve gotten away with it for 60 something years because they’ve had donors, the Soviet Union, and now most recently Venezuela. But that’s now gone.

So the people in control in Cuba have a choice to make. They can either have a real country with a real economy where their people can prosper, or they can continue with their failing dictatorship that’s going to lead to systemic and societal collapse. That’s a very stark and dramatic choice, and it’s one we hope they make the right one. We don’t have an interest in a destabilized Cuba, but that would be their fault because they refuse to allow the people of Cuba to have either economic or political freedom, for that matter.

THE PRESIDENT: And you have a lot of people in this country that want to go back to Cuba and help Cuba. A lot of people have left, you know, they came in penniless, they didn’t have anything, and they’ve become very rich people in our country. And they want to very much go back and help Cuba. So that’s something that Cuba has in a lot of other places. So now, Peter.

Questions About Putin and Zelensky

REPORTER: I do want to ask you about Minnesota, but first just more on topic. President Zelensky said that he was watching with the rest of the world as you made this order to go and capture Nicholas Maduro, and he said, “If that’s how it works with dictators, then the United States knows what to do next.” Sounds like he wants you to go and capture Vladimir Putin. Would you ever order a mission to go and capture Vladimir Putin?

Well, I don’t think it’s going to be necessary. I think we’re going to have a… I’ve always had a great relationship with him. I’m very disappointed. I settled eight wars. I thought this would be in the middle of the pack or maybe one of the easier ones. And I don’t know if you know, Peter, the last month they lost 31,000 people, many of them Russian soldiers, and the Russian economy is doing poorly. I think we’re going to end up getting it settled. I wish we could have done it quicker because a lot of people are dying, and mostly soldiers. You know, they get hit in Kyiv and they get hit a little bit here and there, and people are dying there too, but largely it’s the soldier population. When you have 30,000, 31,000 soldiers dying in a period of a month, 27,000 the month before, 26,000 the month before that, that’s bad stuff.

So as you know, President Biden gave $350 billion to Ukraine to fight, and we would never get that back, although I did make a rare earth deal to get it back. So we will be getting it back, but shouldn’t have done that. It was a bad thing to do. I will say that right now, because I was able to get NATO to up GDP from two percent to five percent. NATO’s got a lot of money and they’re paying for everything. We’re not losing any money. We’re making a lot of money, I guess, if you think of it, because we’re selling our military equipment. They’re probably giving it to Ukraine, but we’re selling them to NATO military equipment. We’re getting full price and all of that. But that’s not a big deal to me. What is a big deal is stopping a war where 30,000 people are being killed every single month.

Question on Minnesota ICE Officer Incident

REPORTER: On Minnesota, the Vice President yesterday suggested that Rene Good, who was killed by this ICE officer, was part of a broad left-wing network. What has your team told you about this broad left-wing network? Who is in charge of it? Who’s part of it? What’s it called?

TRUMP: Well, I haven’t seen the Vice President’s statement, but he’s generally very accurate, I hate to say. Look, I watched that yesterday and there are a lot of different forms to it, but there was a woman screaming, “Shame, shame, shame, shame.” She was a agitator, probably a paid agitator, but in my opinion she was an agitator, a very high-level agitator, so professional. She wouldn’t stop screaming. I said, “This isn’t a normal situation. This is a professional troublemaker,” because you heard it and I had it.

Now, I will say this: the news sort of turned her down, turned her off, because you’re trying to watch. She was so loud and so crazy and just not normal. When somebody sees something like that, they don’t go screaming and screaming the same words. So I guess you could say professional, but I didn’t think she did a very good job. You have agitators, and we will always be protecting ICE and we’re always going to be protecting our Border Patrol and our law enforcement.

Security Guarantees for Oil Companies in Venezuela

REPORTER: Mr. President, in your conversations with these oil executives today, did you provide any security guarantees so that they can do their work safely in Venezuela? And separately, Mr. President…

TRUMP: They will have those guarantees, yes.

REPORTER: And secondly, Mr. President, I’m curious in terms of the future of Venezuela: do you see Venezuela now, led by Delcy Rodriguez, as an ally of the U.S.?

REPORTER: Is that the way that you view that country?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, right now they seem to be an ally and I think it will continue to be an ally. And we don’t want to have Russia there. We don’t want to have China there. And by the way, we don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which if we don’t take Greenland, you’re going to have Russia or China as your next door neighbor. That’s not going to happen.

Security Guarantees for U.S. Companies in Venezuela

REPORTER: Thank you. You just said that these companies would have security guarantees if they go in on the ground in Venezuela. They will have—and what is your plan there actually for these companies and those Americans who are going to be on the ground working for these companies?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, there are going to be Americans. I assume they’re going to be using a lot of Americans, but they’re going to be using a lot of people from Venezuela and other places, I would imagine. But I would think that mostly they’ll be using Venezuelan workers. They have a lot of great workers. They have a very high unemployment rate and they have workers that are very familiar with taking oil out of the ground.

Iran Protests and U.S. Response

REPORTER: How long do you think the Ayatollah will be in power after what we’ve seen play out on the ground there? When is the U.S. going to get involved now that reports of protesters being killed on the ground?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So Iran’s in big trouble. It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago. We’re watching the situation very carefully. I’ve made the statement very strongly that if they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved. We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts. So we don’t want that to happen.

There have been cases like this where President Obama totally backed down, but this is something pretty incredible that’s happening in Iran. It’s an amazing thing to watch. They’ve done a bad job. They’ve treated their people very badly, and now they’re being paid back. So let’s see what happens. We’re watching it. We’re watching it very closely.

Syria and Kurdish Forces

REPORTER: Thank you so much, Mr. President. Do you have any comments and reaction to the recent attacks by the Syrian government alignment groups against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Aleppo, Syria, which killed dozens of civilians and displacing many families? Does your administration bring peace between the Kurds and the Syrian government?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I want to see peace, yes I do. The Kurds and the Syrian government—we get along with both, as you know very well. They have been natural enemies over the years, but we get along both. And we want to see Syria succeed and so far I think they are succeeding. But this is just breaking out and we want to see that stopped.

U.S.-Colombian Relations

REPORTER: Do you hope this meeting with Gustavo Petro marks a new chapter, a new beginning in the benefit of the U.S.-Colombian relations?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: What country?

REPORTER: Colombia, with the president of Colombia.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, I had a very good talk with him yesterday and he’s been very hostile to us and to the nation and to me. Called me a dictator and lots of other things. Called Biden some terrible names, far worse than he called me. But he called yesterday through people and he wants to meet and that’s fine with me. I’ve made up with people also, you know. So we’re going to have a meeting with him. We had a very good conversation.

The people of Colombia—incredible people. Marco would know that better than anybody because he’s married to a woman from Colombia. And I don’t mean Columbia University. That would be—I’m not sure. I think I like Colombia the country better if you want to know the truth. The people, the people are—the people hold it. Hold it. Hold it.

The people are great people. I look forward to meeting with them. Going to meet in the very near future.

Trump on Meeting Venezuela’s President

REPORTER: President of Venezuela, here in the White House, would you greet her to discuss the fate of the country?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I’m going to be meeting a lot of people and we’re going to meet, you know, we meet a lot of people. When you end eight wars, you get to know a lot of people and I think it’s very important. As an example, we have over $18 trillion—think of it, $18 trillion—coming into our country. A lot of that’s coming in from foreign countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar and UAE and others, and I get to meet a lot of people. But I will be meeting with various representatives of Venezuela, probably pretty soon. We haven’t set that up, but the relationship that we have with the people that are currently running Venezuela is very good.

We also have a young lady that received the Nobel Peace Prize. She’s going to come in and pay her regards to our country—really to me, but, you know, I’m a representative of the country, nothing else—and she’s coming in sometime next week, I think Wednesday, Tuesday or Wednesday. And we’ll see how that is. But no, we’re going to be dealing with the people from Venezuela. We’re dealing with them very well. I think they’ve been very smart in the way they’ve dealt with us, frankly, because that whole place could have been obliterated with one more strike and we didn’t want to do that.

Thank you so much.

Question on María Corina Machado

REPORTER: I have a question for you on Minneapolis, but on Venezuela and your meeting with Machado next week, if she gives you her Nobel Peace Prize, will that change your view about her running that country?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I have to speak to her. I mean, I’m going to have to speak to her. She might be involved in some aspect of it. I will have to speak to her. I think it’s very nice that she wants to come in, and that’s what I understand. The reason is because Norway is very embarrassed by what took place. I mean, they’re getting decimated.

Trump on the Nobel Peace Prize

Look, whether people like Trump or don’t like Trump, I settled eight wars—big ones. Some going on for 36 years, 32 years, 31 years, 28 years, 25 years. Some just getting ready to start, like India and Pakistan. Already, eight jets were shot out of the air and I got it done in rapid order without nuclear weapons. I can’t think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel Prize more than me, and I don’t want to be bragging, but nobody else settled wars.

Obama got the Nobel Prize. He had no idea why. He still has no idea. He walks around, he says, “I got the Nobel Prize.” Why did he get a Nobel Prize? He got it almost immediately upon attaining office and he didn’t do anything, and he was a bad president. So I mean, you should get the Nobel Prize for every war you stopped. These were major wars. These were wars that nobody thought could be stopped.

President Putin called me and he said about two of the wars that he’s been trying to stop them for ten years. He wasn’t able to do it. He couldn’t believe it. So in theory, you should get the Nobel Prize for every war you stopped—every one of them was major. But I don’t care about that. What I care about is saving lives. I’ve saved tens of millions of lives.

You know, the Prime Minister of Pakistan came here and he made a very public statement. He said that President Trump saved minimum 10 million lives having to do with Pakistan and India, and that was going to be raging. So, you know, but I’m honored that she’s coming here. I look forward to meeting her.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes. The state officials there have said that the FBI is not sharing evidence with them. Typically they would conduct a joint investigation as you know. Do you believe that the FBI should be sharing evidence with state officials in Minnesota?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, normally I would, but they’re crooked officials. I mean, Minneapolis and Minnesota, what a beautiful place, but it’s being destroyed. It’s got an incompetent governor, fool. I mean, he’s a stupid person. And it looks like the number could be $19 billion stolen from a lot of people, but largely people from Somalia. They buy their vote. They vote in a group. They buy their vote. They sell more Mercedes Benzes in that area than almost—can you imagine you come over with no money and then shortly thereafter you’re driving a Mercedes Benz? The whole thing is ridiculous. So they’re very careful. They’re very careful about what they’re selling and they’re very careful about what they’re not selling. Mercedes Benz, the whole thing is ridiculous. So they’re very corrupt people. It’s a very corrupt state.

I feel that I won Minnesota. I think I won it all three times. Nobody’s won it since Richard Nixon won it many, many years ago. I won it all three times in my opinion, and it’s a corrupt state, a corrupt voting state. And the Republicans ought to get smart and demand voter ID. They ought to demand maybe same-day voting and all of the other things that you have to have to have a safe election. But I won Minnesota three times and I didn’t get credit for it. I did so well in that state every time. The people were crying every time. After that, it’s a crooked state. California is a crooked state. Many crooked states. We have a very, very dishonest voting system.

The last time I won in ’24, the one that just took place, I won because it was too big to rig. You couldn’t rig it. It was too big. But I won the state of Minnesota. It’s a corrupt voting system with an incompetent governor, a very incompetent governor. And by the way, he’s a very corrupt governor too. Go ahead.

Security Guarantees for Oil Companies in Venezuela

REPORTER: I have a question on Iran, but first very quickly on Venezuela. How do you provide total security guarantees to these companies without putting U.S. boots on the ground?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re going to work with the Venezuelan leaders and people and we’re going to have a very safe group. And they’re going to also bring over some security with them. You know, these are not babies. These are people that drill oil at some pretty rough places. I could say a couple of those places make Venezuela look like a picnic. These are very—these people around the table, these are tough people. They go into areas that you wouldn’t want to go. They go into areas that if they invited me, I’d say, “No thanks. I’ll see you back in Palm Beach.”

No, this is a tough group of people. They know how to do it. But we are, in addition to that, we’ll have very good security for them. We’re going to make sure there’s very, very good security. And I think the people of Venezuela are going to give you very good security. You know, the people—and now I’m not talking even leadership—the people of Venezuela are going wild over this. They named a street after President Trump. What do you do? You attack a country and they name a street? That’s never happened before.

Iran Protests and Warning to Iranian Leaders

Although I heard that’s also taking place in Iran. They named a street, the protesters. I just hope, you know, just God bless them. I just hope the protesters in Iran are going to be safe because that’s a very dangerous place right now. And again, I tell the Iranian leaders, you better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.

With your glasses. Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it. Next to you. Yes, glasses. The gentleman with the—all right, thank you, Mr.—with those very big glasses. Yeah, Mr.

REPORTER: President, I have two questions. What do you want the European Union to do in Ukraine? The European leaders are pretty divided on Ukraine. And then if we can reiterate this straight message that you have to the Iranian leader to come in, the message that you have you talking about Iran, I’m sorry.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Where are you from?

REPORTER: Italy.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Oh, nice place. Yeah. Okay. The first question. What are you asking about Iran for?

REPORTER: Well, if you can answer about Europe and what do you think that European should do on Ukraine and then a message?

Trump on Europe’s Role in Ukraine

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, look, Europe has been doing so much for Ukraine, but it hasn’t been enough. And obviously that I would say that President Putin is not afraid of Europe. He’s afraid of the United States of America as led by me. There’s no fear of Europe, you know. Europe’s fallen behind and Europe, then JD said it very strongly. I don’t know, it took a lot of heat, but I didn’t give him any heat. Europe is a different place. Europe is changing. Europe has got to get its act together. I love Europe. I guess I came from Europe essentially. I have, my roots are in Europe, but Europe is a different place. They have to get their act together now. They’ve said they have a great NATO leader and they’ve gone up to 5% from 2% GDP. That’s a big step, but they have to be very careful with their immigration policy and they have to be very, because you know, I will just say to be nice, that there are certain places in Europe that are very important that are no longer recognizable. I’m being very nice. I’m being very diplomatic when I say that they are not recognizable.

Trump’s Stance on Windmills and Energy Policy

And they have to be careful on energy because they’re putting windmills all over the place and losing a fortune. They’re destroying their country. They’re just destroying the beautiful landscapes, the beautiful everything there. They’re doing it, by the way, in case you people don’t know, I’m not much of a windmill person. I can proudly say, Doug, that we have not approved one windmill since I’ve been in office and we’re going to keep it that way. My goal is to not let any windmill be built. They’re losers. They lose money. They destroy your landscape. They kill your birds. They’re made in China, and all you have to do is, you know, just about all of the windmills are made in China, the structures. All you have to do is say to China, how many windmill areas do you have in China? So far, they’re not able to find any. They use coal and they use oil and gas and some nuclear, not much, but they don’t have windmills. They make them and sell them to suckers like Europe and suckers like the United States before. They are the worst form of energy, the most expensive form of energy. And in eight years, they’re rotted out anyway. Don’t take a look at Palm Springs, California, and take a look at what that looks like. It looks like a junkyard, a junkyard of steel. So we don’t approve. And I’ve told my people we will not approve windmills. Maybe we get forced to do something because some stupid person in the Biden administration agreed to do something years ago. We will not approve any windmills in this country.

Venezuela: Stability vs. Democracy

REPORTER: Two questions. On Venezuela, is it ultimately more important to you to establish stability there or democracy there?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, you’re talking about maybe the same thing. I mean, you’re talking about stability or democracy. I don’t know. To me, it’s almost the same thing. We want stability, but we do want democracy. Ultimately, it’ll be democracy.

REPORTER: Peter.

The Happy Trump Pin

REPORTER: I have a policy question, President Trump, but I’m having a hard time seeing here. I see the American flag lapel pin. What is the other lapel pin?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Somebody gave me this. You know what that is? That’s called a “happy Trump.” And considering the fact that I’m never happy, I’m never satisfied.

I will never be satisfied until we make America great again. But we’re getting pretty close. I’ll tell you what. This is called a happy Trump. Somebody gave it to me. I put it on. Thank you. Thank you.

Questions on Greenland and U.S. Security Interests

REPORTER: And the policy question. How much money are you thinking of giving people in Greenland to get them on board with a possible U.S.

TRUMP: I’m not talking about money for Greenland yet. I might talk about that. But right now, we are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not, because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland. And we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor. OK. I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way. But if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way. And I’m a fan. And by the way, I’m a fan of Denmark, too. I have to tell you. And you know, they’ve been very nice to me. I’m a big fan. But, you know, the fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land. Sure, we had lots of boats go there also. But we need that because if you take a look outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and bigger. There are Russian submarines all over the place. We’re not going to have Russia or China occupy Greenland. And that’s what they’re going to do if we don’t. So we’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way.

Please go ahead, ma’am.

REPORTER: Mr. President, why is it so important to you to own it when you have a military presence there which you could expand to affect the security?

TRUMP: Because when we own it, we defend it. You don’t defend leases the same way. You have to own it. And, you know, with a nation, look at what happened with Obama, with that horrible deal they made with Iran. It was a short term deal. It was like a nine year deal. Countries can’t make nine year deals or even 100 year deals. Countries have to have ownership. And you defend ownership. You don’t defend leases. And we’ll have to defend Greenland. If we don’t do it, China or Russia will, not going to happen. We are not going to have. And I like China. I like Russia. I love the people of China. I love the people of Russia. I get along very well with President Putin, but I’m very disappointed in him. I get along very well with President Xi. I’m going to go over to China in April. But I don’t want them as a neighbor in Greenland. Not going to happen. And by the way, NATO’s got to understand that. I’m all for NATO. I saved it. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have a NATO right now. But we’re not going to allow Russia or China to occupy Greenland. And that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t.

Go ahead.

Economic Report and Federal Job Cuts

REPORTER: On the economic report that came out today, Mr. President, one, can you respond to that? And two.

TRUMP: It was an amazing report. The amazing and the most amazing thing is government jobs are way down. And yet the employment came, unemployment or the employment numbers are very good. We’ve gotten rid of tremendous numbers of federal job, government jobs. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. And yet the employment numbers are very good. They’re really getting better. But now we have all those people to work in the private sector for a lot more money. I think that’s one of the very big things. The other thing is that 5.4 percent. And remember, this is after we had a shutdown and that shutdown had an impact because the concept of the shutdown, even though it’s before people knew we were going to be shutting down. A lot of bad things happened. And by the way, on January 30th, we may have another shutdown.

We’ll see what happens. But I think the numbers, Caitlin, were really amazing. Look, to think about five point four percent. Nobody thought that they thought it was going to be two percent. And you know what it is? It’s tariffs. And it’s also November 5th. We had a great election, a great, great election. Our country was dead one and a half years ago. And now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. And I hope you guys were impressed. Five point four percent. And we haven’t even really transitioned yet. There’s no reason it can’t be much, much higher than that.

TRUMP: Yeah, I can respond to the manufacturing. Let’s give CNN a chance. You know, I’ve been fighting so hard to get back into the mainstream.

REPORTER: Mr. President, you posted some numbers actually on Truth Social last night. People saying you posted the job data early when you’re not supposed to obviously share it till the next morning. Did you do that?

TRUMP: Oh, no, no. I don’t know if they posted them. I said post them whenever you get a chance. I don’t know. They gave me some numbers. I put when people give me things, I post them. But the numbers, the numbers are amazing.

Distribution of Venezuela Oil Revenue

REPORTER: Yeah. Please administration plan to distribute the money from the Venezuela oil sales. Is it obviously you say it’s going to go to these controlled accounts. Would it go back to Venezuela? Payment. Is it going through these goods? How do you plan to do?

TRUMP: What we want to make sure that Venezuela can survive. You know, Venezuela needs money and we’re going to make sure that they get money and we’re going to get money and the oil companies are going to make something for the work they do and they’re going to get back their money. We’re devising a formula, but it won’t be so much of a formula. It’s going to be what they need. We’re going to take care of what they need. There’ll be plenty left. We’re going to have a lot of money left over and the money left over is going to the United States of America and the oil companies are going to be very happy.

Financial Guarantees and Risk Management

REPORTER: Yeah, I’m going to sit with the administration, offer a backstop to these oil companies for like financial guarantees, some sort of backstop if the country did destabilize again.

TRUMP: That’s a very interesting question. Using the word “backstop.” I haven’t heard that word in a long time. That was at the Wharton School of Finance. I last heard. That’s a good term. We ought to use it more often. I hope I don’t have to give a backstop. Look, these are very smart people. The smartest people are not only in oil and business. These are the biggest companies in the world sitting around this table. They know the risks. I mean, there are risks.

We’re going to help them out. We’re going to make it really easy. They’re going to be there for a long time. We’re going to be there together for a long, long time. And they’re going to be taking the oil and they’re going to be bringing oil prices down. They’re going to make a lot of money. They’re going to get their money back. They’re going to be safe. The people of Venezuela are going to be big beneficiaries and the United States of America is going to be a big beneficiary for what we’ve done.

National Security Concerns: Keeping Out China and Russia

TRUMP: And, you know, one other thing I might say, it’s also very big for national security because, again, just like Greenland, we can’t have China or Russia occupy Greenland. We can’t have China or Russia occupy Venezuela. And if we didn’t do what we did, China or Russia would have been in Venezuela. I think I can. Where’s Mr. Chevron? So let me ask you, they would have been there if we didn’t do this. Do you agree with that?

CHEVRON EXECUTIVE: They certainly have a lot of economic interest in country. There’s absolutely no argument about that. They were trying to be there.

I mean, you know, we had a Russia, I guess, sort of semi, I call it a semi-Russian ship yesterday that we took over. And Russia decided not to defend that ship against us. It’s a big movement. The ship was loaded up with oil and we took the oil and it came out of that port. But Russia would be there or China would be there. And we want them to be there for a different reason. We want them. Do you people agree? In particular, China, they need a lot of oil. Russia doesn’t need so much. But Russia was there anyway.

But I assume you agree that China would like to be doing a lot of business there by buying oil. And I want to just tell President Xi and President Putin, but more so in this case, President Xi, because they do need a lot of oil and we are open for business in the United States and we are open for business in Venezuela. Right. Go ahead. Sure.

Trump Redirects Focus to Oil Executives

TRUMP: I could take questions from these people all day long. You know, they’re sitting here and generally they’re very rich, very powerful, but nobody gives a damn about them. It’s a sad thing. You have all that money, all that power. And look at all these crazy questions. We could do this all day long, and they wouldn’t be satisfied. So, we’ll take a few more, though.

TRUMP: You have, let me ask you, more importantly, do you have any questions from the biggest — Hold it. Do you have any questions for the biggest people on Earth, the biggest business people, the biggest companies anywhere on Earth? Do you have any questions for these people? No, no. Do you have a question for them? Go ahead. Go ahead and ask them.

REPORTER: For the companies in the room that they are committed to rebuilding the oil infrastructure in Venezuela, and for the executives in the room, what do you need from the administration in order to invest?

TRUMP: That’s a good question. Do you want to go and answer that question?

Executive Outlines Investment Requirements

OIL EXECUTIVE: Yeah. I’ll refer you back to the statements I made before. There are a number of legal and commercial frameworks that would have to be established to even understand what kind of returns that we’d get on the investments. So I think all the investments and the opportunity sets — I think everyone sitting around this table would have the opportunity and the know-how and the capability to make the investments.

OIL EXECUTIVE: The questions will ultimately be, how durable are the protections from a financial standpoint? What do the returns look like? What are the commercial arrangements, the legal frameworks? All those things have to be put in place in order to make a decision to understand what your return would be over the next several decades that these billion-dollar investments would be made on.

Introduction of Industry Leaders

TRUMP: You know, could I do this? Because we have, again, the biggest people on the planet Earth around this table, biggest companies in the world. I’d like to just ask them to introduce themselves. We’ll start from this end and go around to here. And if you have anything to quickly say, we could do that. But do you want to just start right over here? These two guys, we’ll leave them out because they’re with us. Please.

JOHN ADDISON: Thank you, President Trump. John Addison at VTOL. We’re here to ensure that you are going to be able to move all of this oil all around the world at the best price possible so that the influence that you have over the Venezuelans will ensure that you get what you want. Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you. Good point.

BRIAN SHEFFIELD: Thank you, Mr. President. Brian Sheffield of Formentera. My grandfather, Hugh Sheffield, was president of ARCO Venezuela.

TRUMP: Right. Thank you for what you did. Do you like what we’re doing? There’s a lot of shell there, a lot of upside. He would be very happy looking down. He’d be very proud of you right now, right?

BRIAN SHEFFIELD: Yes, sir.

TRUMP: Good. Thank you.

LUIS RODRIGUEZ: Mr. President, Luis Rodriguez.

I’m probably the only Venezuelan-American sitting on this, around this table. I want to personally thank you for the courage of your actions over the last couple of weeks. I think I speak, and I speak of Venezuela in general in saying there’s optimism. You’ve brought optimism to the table. And if the conditions are met, the opportunity is absolutely immense.

TRUMP: I agree with that. That’s true. Thank you. Well said, too. It’s immense. This is a tremendous opportunity. Thank you.

RICHARD HOLTON: Richard Holton from Trafigura. We’re working with your administration, Mr. President, to bring that Venezuelan oil to the United States. Our first vessel should load in the next week.

TRUMP: Great. Good job. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I think the reason that most of us are here and thinking about the future is because we trust you initially to set this program up that will work and guarantee that this can be done. And there’s a huge investment that needs to be done. We’ve all agreed on that. And certainly we need time to see that through. So, thank you for what you’ve done.

TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you.

Refinery Executives Highlight Venezuelan Oil Processing Capabilities

LANE RIGGS: Mr. President, I’m Lane Riggs, CEO of Allero Energy, and we’re one of those companies that refineries in the U.S. are uniquely configured to run Venezuelan oil. And we’re more than happy as this opportunity expands for us to further invest in our refineries to produce more of it.

TRUMP: And you’re very much set up for the heavy oil, right?

LANE RIGGS: Yes, sir.

TRUMP: That’s great. That’s great. We’re ready for it. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President.

Spanish Energy Company Commits to U.S. and Venezuelan Investment

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you for having us here. And thank you for opening the door to a better Venezuela. We are a Spanish company, but we are fully committed to invest here in the States. We have invested over the last 15 years $21 billion in the American oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania, in the Gulf of America, in Texas, and in Alaska with the discovery of PICA, that is going to have the first oil this quarter and is going to change, is going to reverse the declining history of that great state of Alaska.

We are in Venezuela, Mr. President, with our partners of E&I. We produce the gas that guarantees the stability of a half of the cliff power in Venezuela. So we are committed with this stability. And on top of that, we are on the ground. We have people. We have facilities. We have technical capabilities.

And I take your point, Mr. President. We are ready to invest more in Venezuela. Today, we are producing 45,000 barrels a day gross of oil. And we are ready to multiply by three this figure in coming two, three years, investing hard in the country following your recommendation, if you allow us, of course, and in the framework, commercial and legal framework, that could allow this growth. So thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Thank you. Great job you’ve done. Thank you.

Infrastructure and Refining Leaders Pledge Support

MATT SHEEHY: Mr. President, thank you for having me. Matt Sheehy, I’m with Tallgrass Energy. We are an infrastructure business. So whether it’s oil, gas, CO2, we move that around. So most of my customers are sitting around the table and happy to lend our expertise to what’s going on in Venezuela to support the people. And obviously, infrastructure is going to be critical to see it repaired.

TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you.

MARIANNE MANNIN: Mr. President, thank you. It’s an honor to be here. Marianne Mannin, Marathon Petroleum. We are one of the largest U.S. refiners. On behalf of the men and women of Marathon Petroleum and of our industry, thank you and the administration for what you’re doing for U.S. energy independence. We have the ability and the capability of our assets to process Venezuelan crude, and the people of Marathon Petroleum stand ready to do so.

TRUMP: Do we need more refineries in our country? In the U.S.?

MARIANNE MANNIN: Probably not. We have sufficient capacity.

TRUMP: That’s amazing. A lot of it was approved during my first term. We were getting new approvals that nobody could have gotten in Louisiana and other places, and they got built. Before that, it was a disaster. We didn’t have the refineries.

Now we do because of the first term. Please. Darren Woods, ExxonMobil. Okay, we’ll go over here.

Thank you, Mr. President. Jeff Hildebrand, founder and chairman of Hillcorp Energy, one of the largest private energy companies in America. Who’s bigger, you or Harold?

We’re close. We’re close. Harold. Harold.

Absolutely, Mr. Hamm. But thank you for your great, tremendous leadership in protecting the interests in the Western Hemisphere. The message that you have sent to China and our enemies to stay out of our backyard is absolutely fantastic.

So thank you. Thank you very much. And finally, Hillcorp is fully committed and ready to go to rebuilding the infrastructure in Venezuela. You’ll go there?

You’ll be going? Yes. Good. That’s good.

You’ll be very happy. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. President.

Jeff Miller, CEO of Halliburton Company. We are the largest American oilfield services company. We’re the second largest in the world. Been in business over 100 years.

Started operations in Venezuela in 1938. Long time in Venezuela. I personally lived there for four years and raised my kids there. So quite familiar with Venezuela and just couldn’t express gratitude more so for the opportunity to return to Venezuela under the stability that I know that this team and your team are able to deliver.

When did you leave? Huh? When did you leave Venezuela? As a company, we left under the sanctions in 2019.

So we had intended to stay. And then when the sanctions went into place, we were required to leave. But very much interested in returning. Have 600 Venezuelans with Halliburton today all around the world.

Look forward to putting them back to work. Great job. Great job. You’ll be back.

Please. Mr. President, I’m Alex Hamburg. My company, Aspect Energy, is one of the leading American international wildcatters.

We’ve found significant fields in Central and South. Are you a wildcatter? I’m a wildcatter. That’s pretty cool, I’ll tell you.

I would have been a wildcatter, too, if I was in. And you’ve been successfully wildcatting? We’ve found significant fields in Central and South America, in the Middle East, and in Europe. We’re a leading wild producer in Hungary.

But probably the most pertinent example is what a wildcatter does is take on risk and try to reduce it, and other people come in and put more capital in later. So we’re kind of kickstarters in the oil industry. We went into Kurdistan very early on, back when people told us it wasn’t safe and we shouldn’t do it. We found a big field there, and it ultimately has got to be developed, along with one of my colleagues here, to be one of the big leading fields in Kurdistan.

We think that Venezuela has a tremendous amount of opportunity. If you look at the reinvestment required, the investment required, people are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. But if you put that in perspective, that’s a million barrels a day for 15 years. It’s $220 billion net cash flow.

So what we really need to do is to be able to kickstart production. and then reinvest and have the confidence to reinvest in what you’re doing by putting the United States in control of the cash flow coming out of the country. It gives country companies like ours the confidence to say we can kick-start this production and then reinvest and reinvest. In Hungary we’ve invested a billion dollars in changing the trajectory of Hungarian oil production.

We were only able to do that not because we could write a billion dollar check we’re a smaller company but because we reinvest all the cash flow back in the new production. Good. Mark Nelson with Chevron. Thank you Mr.

President. I’m Claudio Scalzi in ICO Italy. We started working in Venezuela in 1980. We have a lot of oil but now just the gas is flowing because it’s not under sanction and as my colleague from Repsol said we cover more than about 50% of the electricity in the country so that is essential to avoid any kind of problem social problem.

We own about 4 billion barrels of reserves so a huge amount in the Orinoco Belt in the central Venezuela. We have now in the country 500 people most Venezuelan and we are ready to invest. Clearly we are ready to invest. We thank you for the big efforts and the efficiency of your action and we are here and we are here to work together with the U.S.

We are also big investor in the U.S. I know that. We thank you again and we are there and we are also ready to join with American companies in our asset to develop and go faster with good investors and good know-how from the U.S. company.

Thank you. You’ve done a great job. Thank you very much. Mr.

President Ross Perot good to see you again. I’m chairman of Hillwood and HK and Energy. We’ve been in the energy business 45 years and we have been working with your team quite a bit. We have been in Kurdistan now for 19 years along with Alex and built a very good business.

But now with your team we’re looking in Syria. We’re now in Libya and so we are very excited to look at Venezuela with you and your group and look forward to continue to build this great industry. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Mr. President thank you for having us here today while so one from Shell. Of course we have a huge presence here in the U.S. and the Gulf as well as in Pennsylvania with a petrochemical facility which I think we had the opportunity to host you at as well as being one of the largest LNG off takers of American LNG.

We have been in Venezuela for a very long time. We actually drilled in 1914 the first well that discovered oil in Venezuela and on the back of which the entire energy industry was established in Venezuela. When we left in the 1970s because of nationalization we had a million barrels per day of production. But we have kept boots on the ground in Venezuela all this time and we now have a few billion dollars worth of opportunities to invest in subject to OFAC approval.

So we are ready to go and looking forward to the investments in support of the Venezuelan people. That’s great. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr.

President. Ben Marshall the America’s CEO for VTOL. Alongside Trafigura we’re very thankful to have worked with the government and the Venezuelans to be able to bring the crude oil to market at a market price as quickly as we can to help stabilize the country. Thank you.

Thank you. Ryan Lance Conoco-Phillips. I’ll defer to my colleagues. Thank you Mr.

President. Olivier Lepage CEO of SLB or formerly known as Schlummerger, the largest global oil field services. We have been in Venezuela since 1930 and we still operate. We operate today on the ground with and support of Chevron.

We have ability to scale. We have 1,100 Venezuelan in the company, 2,000 additional that are calling us to go back to country and to go back to work. We’re able to mobilize in the last 18 months, two weeks and deliver 50 wells with success. So we’re here.

We have knowledge of the subsurface like nobody else has. We have boots on the ground, capacity on the ground, 700 million dollars of equipment value on the ground in Venezuela ready to mobilize for all of our partners, customers. So we are ready to scale fast and we really want to thank the administration, Secretary Wright, Secretary Bergen for their support and giving us to be successful on behalf of the Venezuelan oil and gas industry. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Well check this out. They say the very best for last and I don’t have that sexy accent like this guy next to me here. Mr.

President, my name’s Bill Armstrong of Armstrong Oil and Gas. I’m a private independent guy and in real estate you were a well getter. So wear that model proudly. But like you, I was my own guy.

I don’t have shareholders. I don’t have private equity partners but I’ve been drilling all over the place. In fact, I had a large discovery in Alaska. Biggest discovery in 50 years in our country.

I now control 8 million acres adjacent to Venezuela. So I’m already heavily invested in the area. We share a 150 mile border with Venezuela and the countries of Aruba and Curacao and we are ready to go to Venezuela. In real estate terms, it is prime real estate and it’s kind of like West Palm about 50 years ago.

Very ripe. Yep, I agree with you. Thank you. Congratulations.

So I think what we’re going to do is speak without the press to these gentlemen. See what kind of a deal we can make. We’re going to get them involved. I’m going to ask Doug and Chris and some of the people that we have from the business standpoint representing our country to start talking about the confines of a deal.

We have an idea what I want, what I think we should have. We have to get them to invest and then we have to get their money back as quickly as we can and then we can divvy it all up between Venezuela, the United States and them. I think it’s simple. I think the formula is simple.

We start with a brand new plate and it’s going to be a tremendous success. I think it’s going to be probably like few other things could ever be. You know, there’s so much. There’s so much.

Venezuela has been really taken advantage of by a lot of people because they grill very little. I mean, as much as you hear they have, they drill very, very little, very small percentage. But now that will change and it will change very rapidly because these are the biggest people and it will change very rapidly. So if you don’t mind, I’ll ask the press to leave and we will see what kind of a deal we’re going to make with these geniuses.

And I think you’re going to come out very good. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

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