The key facts

  • Trump said Venezuelan oil revenues would soon reach 'hundreds of billions'
  • According to him, the US has already recouped the cost of the war 'many times over'
  • He claimed China and Russia left Venezuela at the US demand

Statements at the Veterans Day ceremony

US President Donald Trump, speaking on Wednesday at the 2026 National Veterans Day ceremony, said that revenues from Venezuelan oil would reach 'hundreds of billions very soon,' and that the US has already recouped the cost of its operation in the country 'many times over.'

Oil and the 'spoils of the victor'

'In our case it was Venezuela, from which we are taking out billions and billions of dollars of oil and all sorts of other things — soon it will be hundreds of billions. Nobody has ever seen anything like it, and we have already recouped the cost of the war many times over,' Trump said. According to him, 'millions of barrels of oil' are being shipped out of Venezuela weekly, bringing in 'billions and billions of dollars.' 'The spoils belong to the victor — that's what they used to say, but with us, under this leadership, it can be said again,' he added.

China, Russia and Iran

Trump also stated that China and Russia left Venezuela at his demand: 'They were all nibbling at the edges. I said: you must leave. They left, and we did not.' Addressing the veterans, he said: 'When the battle ends, our obligations to those who served are only beginning.' In addition, Trump once again claimed that the US did not allow Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons. All the figures and statements cited are claims by the president himself; the publication contains no independent confirmation of the volumes of oil shipped out or of the circumstances of China's and Russia's departure.