White House comedy intensifies. 
Trump’s Claim
Truth Social: One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves which, because of Sleepy Joe Biden, has been virtually emptied. The “topping out” process will begin very shortly, and is a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States. Thank you! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Aug 30, 2026, 8:10 AM
Filling the reserves is just one thing Trump will do with Venezuelan oil.
Six More Things
- Balance the budget
- Lower gasoline prices to 65 cents
- Make Venezuela Great Again
- End six more wars
- Eliminate the Income tax
- Turn water into wine
Best of all, it’s a no cost gift from the people of Venezuela to the United States.
What Would It Take?
Deal Denounced
Bing Bing
Deal Explained
Cartoon of the Day
Not to worry. I am sure this deal will balance the budget, turn water into wine, and eliminate the income tax, among other things.
More seriously, What’s in Trump’s Allegedly Greatest Oil Deal in History, with Venezuela?
The deal is illegal, with no immediate impact. But Canada is warned.
It is the wrong flavor of oil.
Is it? It’s my understanding that many Gulf Coast refineries were originally designed for this flavor. Admittedly I don’t know the effort involved to get them running again at peak efficiency on heavy sour crude.
The question that’s never asked:
When did it become the norm for Americans to elect barking mad psychopathic thieves?
Since the 80s.
One strategic word missing in the headlines. “… will fill strategic petroleum reserves with stolen Venezuelan oil”
No big oil company is stupid enough to fall for this nonsense.
Chevron is still there. Perhaps their patience in the region will pay off.
I think that it is a basic tenet of contract law that a deal under threat of force by one party to the other is not a valid and binding deal. In later years, if reviewed by an international court, it would most likely be declared invalid.
Those who praise this deal should not object if China invades Taiwan and obtains a similar deal with all the semiconductors that it produces.
What on earth makes you think anyone will get justice from a court?!?
Courts enforce power relations. That is all.
Scripture says no one can escape divine justice, though.
“Today every soul will be recompensed for what it earned. No injustice today. Indeed, God is swift in account.”
Iran is retaliating by striking US bases in Jordan, and firing at US navy vessel as well.
I think these attacks mark a new stage of escalation that may continue for quite some time. Things will escalate further when an attack is launched from or against Israel.
Methinks that Iran is forcing the US to corner their assets in Israhell, so that it can then destroy the Usonian and the Israheli assets once and for all.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/8/30/iran-war-live-iran-pledges-to-stand-firm-against-unjust-us-sanctions
Pentagon Strikes Iranian Island Target, In First US Military Action In Weeks
Trump’s SPR claims are nonsense as well. I remember him claiming that he filled the SPR in his first term. Reality is that he never added any oil to the SPR. During his first term the SPR dropped by 57 mb from 695 to 638 mb.
During Biden’s term, the SPR dropped from 638 mb to a low of 346 mb, mostly because of withdrawals due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Biden then added 56 mb to bring the SPR back up to 402 mb. He would have added more, but Congress wouldn’t give him the money.
During Trump’s second term the SPR has dropped from 402 mb to 290 mb and could fall to under 250 mb. We are still making daily withdrawals from the SPR in an attempt to keep oil prices low.
It will be interesting to see how low the SPR can actually go before the salt caverns collapse and become unusable. If they eventually collapse, then Trump will have an excuse to not refill them.
Hey pd
I have heard Venezuela oil is to heavy for the spr.
Epa has relaxed summer blend formula time line
Any info
Summer blend is 15-30 cents more expensive for refineries to produce. So switching off summer blend early can help lower prices a bit.
Venezuelan crude is not compatible with the current US SPR. Major modifications would have to be made to the SPR to be able to store it.
The US SPR is already in need of very costly, long neglected, major maintenance and repair. If we wanted to take the plunge, perhaps now is the time to make those repairs and at the same time, upgrade things to allow for Venezuelan crude. However, no one has ever considered the upgrades needed for that crude, and no one knows what the costs would actually be.
It’s all a moot point at the moment as we will be drawing down the SPR till Nov 1, provided it doesn’t start to collapse. The companies that have been taking the SPR oil have to start sending oil to refill the SPR at that point, plus 20% more.
Curious as to why Venezuelan crude is not compatible with the current US SPR and what major modifications would have to be made to the SPR to be able to store it.
And the US just struck Iran for the first time in a month. They attacked Iran’s operations on Larak Island, a location where Iran can launch missiles into the strait from and place mines from.
25 years after the bush crime family, left the back gates open and the 19 hijackers pulled off the most stupendous military attack in centuries……..the us military has been retreating from middle east after endless capitulations on battlefields. the empire is crumbling and if you ask me, i think a good thing. world wide imperial war mongering is an unhealthy objective to keep voting for. like the evil empires before us, we shall collapse and life will go on. more pleasantly for most humans on planet including those of us in usa borders.
From my experiences after many decades of voting in US elections.
Don’t vote.
It only encourages them.
Major and catastrophic apathy may be the only way for the system to change.
We need to do just the opposite: vote out every encumbent and vote in the most poorly financed candidate from the other party. We already have apathy aplienty.
For every mendacious incompetent incumbent there is a line of the same spending millions to get in. The system needs to change – not the Constitution.
Check out how a 12 step program works.
Don’t be an enabler.
You really believe that drivel?
A few details about Trump’s announced greatest oil deal in history.
He claimed that:
The US now has a 55% controlling interest in 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil for 100 years. That this would double US reserves. That this would bring gas prices down immediately.
And now he claims that he will immediately begin refilling the SPR with Venezuelan oil
All LIES.
After a little digging, here are the actual details.
The US government will provide loans or loan guarantees in order to subsidize a Venezuelan oil company, Blue Energy Partners, to produce Venezuelan oil. Not US oil companies. This Venezuelan company would effectively be competing with US companies here at home.
The US Government (through the Pentagon) will receive warrants that allow them to take a 35% interest in Blue Energy after 25 years. Note: it is illegal for the Pentagon to own part of any private company, let alone one in Venezuela.
The US Government will receive preferential rights to purchase 20% of the oil produced by Blue Energy over the next 25 years. The contract can be extended for up to 100 years.
Blue Energy expects to be producing 1 mbpd in 10 years time. So the US would have the right to buy up to 20% of that, or 200,000 barrels per day, many years from now.
This is a greenfield development. There is no existing oil production. The Venezuelan company is starting from scratch and needs to raise money in order to begin operations, which will take many years to happen, if at all.
Blue Energy is owned by Alejandro Battencourt, who has been charged with money laundering in multiple jurisdictions. What are the odds that he will actually create a working oil company and sell 20% of his production to the US govt in 10 years time?
So everything Trump says is a lie. We don’t own any Venezuelan oil. This “deal” does nothing for US reserves. Many years forward, we may eventually buy some oil from this company in Venezuela, but it does nothing to to add to our supply today. It cannot lower our gasoline prices or fill our SPR.
The most likely outcome is Battencourt borrows money with US loan guarantees, disappears, and the US govt gets stuck with the bill.
It’s not the US govt, it is the taxpayer and yeah this has grift written all over it. I’m sure there will be kickbacks to the con artists setting all of this up. It’s beyond ‘banana republic’ now, it’s downright mobster racketeering.
Agree.
It’s just now all out in the open instead of behind closed doors like it was for many decades. Nothing different than what we did with the Shah in Iran in the 60s.
All out in the open like in the wizard of Oz when the curtain was pulled back…nothing but levers, wheels, and a microphone used to project his booming, fiery voice and smoke effects.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! is good advice today.
Bravo! It’s awesome comments like this that inspire the correct name for Taco, Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Hakeem Jeffries:
The lying liars, who lie, lie, lie!
Thanks!
Battencourt was a leader of the right-wing Venezuelan mafia in Miami. Coincidentally, wealthy Venezuelans settled in the the City of Doral where Trump has his golf course.
The SPR is a mix of light and heavy. You aren’t going to fill the whole thing with one or the other. Not to mention this is probably an ideal time to actually do some of the very long overdue maintenance.
Just add it to the deficit…
I believe that Taco will fill up the SPR about as much as I believed OJ’s search for the real killers.
Watch what he does, not what he says.
i met OJ and his wife in 1992. wonderfully charismatic fella. i’d trust OJ with my hound dog before i would trust Pederast Potus with my goldfish.
This is the powerful gift to Iranian dictator and nationalists.
Defend your country and resources or else.
This is why tRump tried to invade Iran. It wasn’t about a bomb, it was to take the oil.
Iran would be delighted to be able to sell oik freely for dollars on world markets.
Oh, I do remember that now. So much distraction going on I almost forgot! 😁
Mish makes it sound like the US having control of Venezuelan oil production after disposing of communist control is a bad thing.
It’s all a lie. We have no control of Venezuelan oil production. We simply signed a dubious agreement to purchase some of their oil in the future.
We never illegally invaded Venezuela and kidnapped their president for their oil. We did it to ‘free’ the people and stop the flow of drugs to the US. Didn’t you get the memo?
So you are in favor of armed robbery.
Hey, they weren’t using it anyway, right?
And he would be correct. It is always wrong to steal others property. In fact, that’s what communism is, stealing other’s property. And Mish, unlike apparently you, is not a communist.
Old colonisation:
Invade the country. Install the puppet government and extract the resources.
Modern colonisation:
Invade the country. Install the puppet government and extract the resources.
The same play book.
Whatever, colonisation will fail miserably one way or another undoubtedly.
You mean like how the US stole Hawaii, California and a whole lot of other lands? What Trump is doing is no different. If you are against this then you probably support La Raza and other decolonisation movements
Lebensraum before Hitler invented it.
Most decent people do. Why wouldn’t they?
Looks like Greenland and Europe are at real risk as of today. Trump and Putin have struck some deal.
Geez, give it a rest already.
Details, please.
Viva yo!
Effectively, hurray for me and to hell with everyone else. Apparently, Trump’s personal motto. probably will replace “In god we trust” at some point.
I told a relative about the deal, remarking that the “deal” is really “We” stole it. She responds “Oh, I don’t know about that”. There’s a lot of “that” kind of coping going on.
There are 28 million Venezuelans, tell your relative not to whine when they show up at the Mexican-US border.
Worth repeating the question Joe Biden and his side have put repeatedly: How are we coming in reducing and ending our use of fossil fuels? All that D. Trump talks about becomes less of a problem the less oil we use.
I was in Gdansk, back in 1990 right after Communism had collapsed in Poland. We met some guys at a public park, driving a nice new Porsche 944. Seems they were in the car selling business. I complemented them on their nice car. They said they would get one for me, deliver it FOB Montreal, all necessary paperwork, for $10,000 US. I declined the offer, as I do not traffic in stolen property. These guys looked like they would just steal the cars in Germany, and then export them around the world. I’ve never traded in stolen property.
See, not only is it morally wrong, it is also bad business practice. It’s pretty basically a really bad idea. If you steal stuff from people – the folks who have had their stuff stolen, are probably going to be really angry, and maybe seek to recover their stolen property. Plus, they are certain to be personally pissed-off at the thieves who robbed them. They might go to great lengths, out of a sense of honour.
There may be “whisky in the jar”, but at some point, you have a high probability of waking up from a nice nap, and finding Captain Ferrel standing right there, mad as hell, and determined to execute on the project of justice. You end up in a very bad place.
Stealing from a whole nation, probably takes it up even a few more notches. Theft is bad business – for everyone involved, especially if the Thief-In-Command has not grasped the full consequence of his actions. The Clown Emperor of USA and his gang, might find they pay a very high price for this signifcant theft of Venezuelan oil reserves.
I have to give PapaDave credit for an excellent post. He hit the nail on the head. As the oil execs have already stated. Venezuela is univestible. The reality is that much of Venezuelas oil will never be developed.
This is gaslighting the American public plain and simple.
PapaDaves post deserves another look.
“Trump’s announcement is much ado about nothing. Similar to his 40+ announcements about winning the Iran war (and also taking over Iran’s oil). It’s all fantasy.
Oil companies have very little interest in Venezuela. There are many reasons why:
An illegitimate government which is likely to be replaced in the future by a government that may rescind this “deal”. They have been burned before in the same way when a new Venezuelan government comes in and changed the rules.
Decades of neglect. There is literally no infrastructure to support drilling activity. No water. No roads. No electricity. No upgraders. No pipelines. Insufficient ports. Costs of rebuilding the infrastructure range in the $100 billion to $300 billion range. The time period is 10 years plus to get from the 1.2 mbpd output to the previous 3.5 mbpd high. And that’s if everything works out perfectly.
Security. Drillers have to deal with bandits, gangs, and organized crime that are rampant in these regions. Cost of security is significant.
To justify the time and expense, oil companies need an oil price of $90+ in order to even “consider” an investment decision. (So much for Trump’s claim of $50 oil.)
There are better investments elsewhere all over the world with lower costs, and less risk. And oil companies have already committed their capital budgets for the next several years to these other projects. Will they switch from what they have already committed to and take a huge chance on Venezuela? Highly unlikely.
US refineries. Venezuelan oil is sent to gulf coast refineries that are designed to handle it. Currently those refineries are taking in 0.6 mbpd of Venezuelan oil. There is NO physical way of getting Venezuelan oil to the US midwest PADD2 region that is currently supplied by 4 mbpd of Canadian oil. I suppose you could spend tens of billions to build new pipelines over the next decade to eventually get Venezuelan oil to the midwest if you really wanted to.
Assuming Trump’s plan works (it won’t) it will take over 10 years and hundreds of billions to increase Venezuelan exports to 2 mbpd and replace half of what Canada sells us at a cheaper price.
In those 10 years, Canada is planning to build more pipelines to their west coast in order to ship more oil to Asia. The only question is whether those pipelines will carry some of what is currently sent south to the US, or if it will be new production that is in addition to what they currently send to the US.”
This is Venezuela today.
Venezuela’s Overwhelming Electricity Crisis
“Venezuela is enduring its most intense wave of blackouts since 2019, and the timing could not be worse for a country attempting a full-scale economic recovery. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has called for water and electricity rationing amid rising social tensions over the outages.
In an Americas Quarterly article in February, we argued that Venezuela’s electricity system had to be reinvented rather than simply repaired. That diagnosis has only become more urgent after the devastating twin earthquakes in June and the growing risk of a severe El Niño, which could wreak havoc on feeble hydroelectric generation mostly coming from the south of the country.
While Venezuelans from non-major urban centers have been suffering from constant blackouts for years, the problem is metastasizing to all of the country. Anecdotal evidence points to daily five- to seven-hour blackouts in key cities, such as Valencia—the country’s once-thriving manufacturing hub—and nearby Maracay. Large parts of the Andean and Western regions are also repeatedly affected by inconsistent thermoelectric plant operations; citizens are voicing their discontent in massive protests, and companies reported an average of 57 unplanned outages, five a week, in the second quarter of the year. Meanwhile, oil companies seeking to expand operations will need to supply their own electricity for related projects, given the poor state of the generation and the distribution network.
Thank you for the compliment. I have added some new info in this thread.
When was the last time that taco carried through with anything he said or threatened. Time to him to go and the sooner the better for the entire world.
Market manipulation
That picture of Trump reminds me of something I looked up a while back with an AI chatbot:
Q: what are the typical stereotypes of boomers
Stereotypes about Baby Boomers (born ~1946–1964) tend to cluster around technology, money, work habits, politics, and intergenerational attitudes—often as punchlines in memes or “OK Boomer” rhetoric.
These are the tropes you’ll see most often online and in pop culture:
Trump is king of the boomers, the insatiable greed of this filth is beyond me. Thank god mother nature and the grim reaper will clean this mess up in due time.
3-Star Mishelin award granted.
They’ll all be dead by 2070. Then everyone else can get on with their lives.
2036 is when most will be gone, I did the math.
the math is erroneous
40% are gone now. The flu and the fungus will accelerate that number. Thank the crack head Secretary of Health for what is coming. Bookmark this post and get back to me in 2036.
https://incendar.com/baby_boomer_deathclock.php
Did you mean the math is irrelevant?
so said a teacher I had in elementary school
he said the coming mini ice age would be the reason
news flash. the amerikan voters for at least the past 80 years have been voting for assholes to do asshole things. that includes the greatest generation to the current 18 year olds. if you think you and whatever generation you believe you are in is exempt from asshole voting for asshole things, i have a bridge in my old home of brooklyn to sell you. you seem both arrogant and ignorant. deadly combo. i don’t care how wealthy or cunning you are.
ok boomer.
Donny seems to say a lot of things lately
Im waiting to see how many and how frequently tankers from VZ make it to the USA
Then we may see how fast the SPR can be filled as word is that under Joey Lying Dog Face, the fill pipe was damaged so bad that the flow in, is now about 15% of what it had been before.
The amazing thing is Sleepy Joe – Joey Lying Dog Face – Biden was a1,000 times better President than Trump.
Let’s not get carried away, Biden brought us Trump 2.0, Gaza leading to probably the loss of US control over the Middle East, and the stupid bloody fuckery in Ukraine. STILL a lot better than Trump tho, maybe 10x.
He’s clearly trying to build a narrative to preempt the coming campaign attacks about his utter mismanagement of everything. The trouble is a lot of morons will believe his BS
Trump the fabulist can absolutely say anything, even contradictory to yesterday’s blurb, and a solid 30-35% of voters will buy it without questions. They have outsourced their brains (and destiny) to this boob. Real world events get no serious evaluation in this weightless world of pretending.
That’s a fundamental information theory aspect of fraud (or digital communications generally): literally, talk is cheap. It is massively easier to fabricate a “reality” than to accomplish it in the difficult grinding world of physical reality. That’s why things like action movies are so popular. This is the space Trump’s entire existence is in.
why is that trouble? they believed 9.11.01 was a surprise attack 25 years ago. they believed in WMD. they believe amerika is NOT an evil empire. it’s over kids. the empire is croaking on stupidity.
Lol! He’ll be dead before that could happen which it won’t. The Venezuelan people are not gonna sit idly by while we steal their oil. A couple of well placed drones ever couple of years is all it will take to stop production. Not to mention the country’s infrastructure has been trashed by sanctions and poor leadership adding hundreds of billions in costs.
Is Venezuelan oil the best or right oil for such storage?
If the pumps on the straws that suck it back out of the strategic petroleum reserve can suck as good as Trump sucks, not a problem.
The Health Ranger says:
“Trump is of course a liar about using Venezuelan heavy crude oil to refill the SPR. The SPR has strict quality requirements such as a maximum of 1.99% sulfur content. Venezuelan oil is 5.7% sulfur, which is considered insanely “sour.” It also happens to be highly acidic which would eat away at the storage cave walls, likely causing cave-ins and collapse. There are other requirements, too, such as API gravity. Venezuelan oil doesn’t qualify. If you pour it in, you can never get it back out. Too sludgy. It basically just becomes a giant “tar cave” of sludge that’s unpumpable. So once again, Trump is lying about the whole thing. There’s much more to this story, too, such as the fact that the 65 billion barrels of oil can’t possibly be tapped without at least A FULL DECADE of infrastructure investment in Venezuela, and at least $100 billion in investment funds, plus you have to find all the experts around the world who know how to do these things and somehow entice them to move to what is effectively a war zone where local resistance groups will be targeting them constantly. So nope, your gas prices aren’t going to get any better tomorrow. It’s all just smoke and mirrors. As usual”.
I’m not sure if the Health Ranger is near correct but it is worth a thought.
good for diesel, jet fuel, and home heating oil
ok for gasoline
if I am remembering accurately
But really bad for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Stick a straw in a jar peanut butter. Suck your ass off.