There is one stark difference between what is happening in Venezuela and “America’s failed occupation of Iraq.”
“We’re going to keep the oil,” President Donald Trump told “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough Monday, per Mediaite.
Scarborough talked about his conversation with Trump on Tuesday morning’s show a out Saturday’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday that he wanted U.S. oil companies to go into Venezuela to rebuild the energy infrastructure and to “get the oil flowing the way it should be.”
Scarborough asked Trump “what was coming next.”
Trump recounted “the U.S. military’s flawless execution of the operation.”
“He talked an awful lot about the courage shown by those who raided Maduro’s fortress, and how quickly they dispensed with the scores of Cuban troops who were guarding the Venezuelan dictator,” Scarborough said. “The president concluded his summary of the attack by noting the message that this will surely send about America’s strength to Putin, Xi, and Iran”
Scarborough then asked about “comparisons” to former President George W. Bush’s intervention in Iraq.
“But when I pressed comparisons with America’s failed occupation of Iraq, the president’s response was very different. I asked him, I said, ‘Mr. President, when you say, quote, we’re going to run everything that obviously causes deep concerns because of the disaster in Iraq.’
The president’s response, ‘Joe, the difference between Iraq and this is that Bush didn’t keep the oil. We’re going to keep the oil,’” Scarborough said.
“And to underline his point, Trump said his comments were no longer on background and said: ‘In 2016, I said we should have kept the oil. It caused a lot of controversy. Well, we should have kept the oil’ – the president said – ‘and we’re going to rebuild their broken down oil facilities, and this time we’re going to keep the oil,’” the host continued.
“Saying the United States is entering a new era of geopolitical engagement seems to be an understatement,” Scarborough said.
