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By Joshua Scheer
The Oil Belongs to the United States?
Let’s begin—and end—with the thought that says everything about this moment: the oil belongs to the United States. It is a sentence so brazen, so logically bankrupt, that it barely disguises what U.S. policy toward Venezuela has become—a naked assertion of imperial entitlement dressed up as democracy promotion.
That logic was laid bare in a briefing delivered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who reportedly told senators: “We are going to take between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil. We’re going to sell it in the marketplace at market rates, not at the discounts Venezuela was getting.”
“We are going to take between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil. We're going to sell it in the marketplace at market rates, not at the discounts Venezuela was getting. That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is dispersed in a way that benefits the… pic.twitter.com/HdUEYRi8zO
— Department of State (@StateDept) January 7, 2026
There it is.
Not liberation.
Not humanitarian concern.
Not international law.
Oil.
The Washington Post, in what can only be described as a puff piece for a war manager, crowned Rubio with a new title: “Viceroy of Venezuela.” The paper framed his role as his “most challenging yet,” admiring his command of details and his long-standing obsession with regime change in Caracas. What it did not seriously grapple with is the obvious question: since when does the United States appoint viceroys over sovereign nations in the 21st century?
An Insane Plan, Stated Out Loud
Democrats who attended classified briefings were far less impressed. Common Dreams captured the mood bluntly with its headline: “‘This Is an Insane Plan’: Democrats Fume After Briefing on Trump Plot to Steal Venezuela’s Oil.” After the session, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters, “We learned a lot. I’m glad we had the briefing. But this is going to be a very rough ride for the United States.”
Murphy: "This is an insane plan. They are talking about stealing the Venezuelan oil at gun point for an undefined period of time as leverage to micromanage the country. The scope and insanity of that plan is absolutely stunning…This is going to be a very rough ride for the U.S." pic.twitter.com/0fQ2KryJTS
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) January 7, 2026
The Senate finally got briefed by the Trump Administration on Venezuela today – and I'm going to share with you what I can.
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 7, 2026
The bottom line is this – their plan is insane: take Venezuela's oil at gunpoint and use it run the country from DC. America is nation building again. pic.twitter.com/yEqaCTlNtl
A rough ride—for whom? Venezuelans already crushed by sanctions? U.S. soldiers deployed without debate? Or lawmakers forced to defend the indefensible?
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) put it plainly: “We are four months into a sustained military operation. More than 200 ‘enemies’ have been killed. American troops have been injured. We have U.S. forces arranged around Venezuela. Yet neither the House nor the Senate have been willing to hold a single public hearing.”
Of course, Kaine couldn’t leave it there.
“You can talk to Marco about—‘Tell us about Delcy,’” Kaine said. “He knows all of that, and he can give you a sense of who they are and what they’re up to.”
Kaine went on to compliment Rubio for putting renewed focus on the Americas, even as he quickly added that Trump’s self-proclaimed revival of the Monroe Doctrine is the wrong kind of attention.
And that is precisely the problem in Washington: leaders who recognize the danger even as they normalize it—speaking out of both sides of their mouths while the machinery of empire keeps moving.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Democratic leader, offered a similar hedge. “Although I may disagree with him on a day-to-day or hour-to-hour basis,” Durbin said, “he has shown extraordinary competence. I voted for him in this position; I still have confidence in his abilities.”
What makes this moment especially dangerous is that it is happening now, in plain sight. These are not distant observers. They are Rubio’s friends—his former colleagues—now backing him as he carries out this agenda. According to reporting, Rubio has been working the phones, selling lawmakers—and the president—on his vision for Venezuela.
No hearings.
No vote.
No democratic consent.
Just executive power, weaponized.
The Quiet Parts, Said Loudly
Republicans, for their part, have largely abandoned the pretense. Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, explained the ongoing naval quarantine this way: Venezuela, he said, used its oil reserves as a “global piggy bank” to fund rogue states and militant groups—from Iran to Hezbollah. “So yeah,” he added, “we’re going to continue to have that in place for as long as it takes.”
As long as it takes—to do what, exactly?
Starve the country into submission?
Strip its resources?
Enrich U.S. corporations under military guard?
Coups, but Make Them Normal
After the briefing, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “Across America, people are just saying: what the hell is going on? We need answers as to how long this is going to last, how many troops, how much money, what guardrails exist.”
Another Democrat playing the game—enough to make you want to pull your hair out. Schumer wants answers about timelines and costs.
Those are not the questions that matter. But here is a photo that demonstrates that
This photo captures exactly what this article is addressing. I’m using it under fair use for commentary and critique. Politico recently published a report detailing Marco Rubio’s ties to the Senate and how he has worked his colleagues to normalize his imperial ambitions. This image distills that dynamic perfectly. Shouldn’t Chuck Schumer be keeping Rubio at arm’s length? Isn’t that what leadership would look like? Instead, what we see is the warm embrace of two long‑time political allies. Honestly, at first glance I thought I was looking at Henry Kissinger—until I realized it was the current face of the so‑called “opposition.”
The question is why the president believes he has the authority to invade another country in the first place.
I don’t expect much from Schumer—a man who failed to deliver healthcare for millions of Americans and has long proven himself a feckless “leader.” But that is precisely the point. This is not a failure of one individual. It is a systemic collapse. The two-party system is clearly broken, and until that reality is confronted, moments like this will continue to repeat themselves.
Meanwhile, the answers—when they come—are evasive. Trump officials insist there are “no troops in Venezuela,” even as lawmakers describe sustained military operations and U.S. forces encircling the country. The contradictions pile up. The machine keeps moving.
Let’s be honest about what this is. The United States has run countless coups—successful and failed—across Latin America, including in Venezuela. What makes this moment different is not its morality, but its openness. This is not covert. This is not deniable. This is empire, stated plainly.
The Election Myth
Much is made—by Rubio and his allies—of a coming “transition” leading to free and fair elections, possibly headed by opposition figure María Corina Machado. But this talking point deserves scrutiny. Free elections are invoked ritualistically, even as economic strangulation, military pressure, and foreign interference define the political terrain.
Around the world, elections are shaped—often decisively—by outside investment, coercion, and information warfare. Venezuela is no exception. To pretend otherwise is political theater, not analysis.
A Viceroy, With Bipartisan Applause
Perhaps most disturbing is that Rubio’s ascent has not been rejected across party lines. Durbin praised his “competence.” Kaine praised his regional focus. Democrats criticize the optics while endorsing the architect.
Competence at what, exactly?
Managing an illegal war?
Administering someone else’s oil?
Ending Where We Began
The oil belongs to the United States. That is the assumption driving this policy. Strip away the rhetoric, the briefings, the editorials, and the bipartisan niceties, and what remains is an imperial presidency asserting control over another nation’s resources.
If democracy means anything, it cannot coexist with viceroys, resource seizures, and wars conducted without public consent. The question is no longer what is happening in Venezuela. It is whether anyone in Washington is willing to stop it.
There will be no shortage of briefings, no shortage of troubled statements, no shortage of bipartisan praise offered while the machinery of empire grinds forward. What is missing is friction—public, sustained, and impossible to ignore. Strikes, protests, calls to Congress—whatever it takes to break the insulation that allows empire to operate without consequence.
Empires do not end because their administrators lose confidence. They end when wars become politically unmanageable, when secrecy is shattered by demand, when hearings are forced, funding is contested, and silence is withdrawn.
History will not ask whether Marco Rubio was well briefed or whether senators expressed concern in private. It will ask who normalized this—and who refused to. On that question, quiet complicity will count as an answer.
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