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GOP Congressman Refutes JD Vance “It’s Not American Oil,” Says “Risky Deals” Have Consequences

by in Daily Edition | January 5, 2026 3 min read

VP JD Vance

VP JD Vance, White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

President Trump’s decision to indict and capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has been criticized by many lawmakers as being “illegal” — he did not seek congressional approval — and “not about drugs…it’s about oil and regime change,” as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) agreed with Ocasio-Cortez (“if it were about drugs, we’d bomb Mexico or China or Colombia”) and noted that the DOJ’s 25-page Maduro indictment lacks any mention of fentanyl or stolen oil.

Vice President JD Vance responded to such claims on social media. He wrote: “You see a lot claims that Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs because most of the fentanyl comes from elsewhere. I want to address this: First off, fentanyl isn’t the only drug in the world and there is still fentanyl coming from Venezuela (or at least there was).

“Second, cocaine, which is the main drug trafficked out of Venezuela, is a profit center for all of the Latin America cartels. If you cut out the money from cocaine (or even reduce it) you substantially weaken the cartels overall. Also, cocaine is bad too!

“Third, yes, a lot of fentanyl is coming out of Mexico. That continues to be a focus of our policy in Mexico and is a reason why President Trump shut the border on day one.

“Fourth, I see a lot of criticism about oil. About 20 years ago, Venezuela expropriated American oil property and until recently used that stolen property to get rich and fund their narcoterrorist activities.”

Vance added: “I understand the anxiety over the use of military force, but are we just supposed to allow a communist to steal our stuff in our hemisphere and do nothing? Great powers don’t act like that. The United States, thanks to President Trump’s leadership, is a great power again. Everyone should take note.”

Massie replied to Vance: “It’s not American oil. It’s Venezuelan oil. Oil companies entered into risky deals to develop oil, and the deals were canceled by a prior Venezuelan government. What’s happening: lives of US soldiers are being risked to make those oil companies (not Americans) more profitable.”

As seen below, Trump said he spoke with U.S. oil companies before and after the arrest of Maduro and his wife, and said, “they’re gonna go in and spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure and start making money for the country.”