President Donald Trump may have meant nothing by it — just another tossed-off comment — but the moment the words came out his mouth, people online said they heard a slip far too revealing to ignore.
Within hours, the administration’s public justification for its latest operation was being openly questioned, with critics insisting Trump’s loose, unguarded phrasing exposed motives the White House has spent months trying to dress up.
When Trump confirmed Wednesday that the United States had seized a sanctioned supertanker off the coast of Venezuela, he initially cast the operation as another strike in his pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro’s government.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large, largest one ever, actually, and other things are happening,” he said. But when a reporter asked what would happen to the crude, Trump gave a startlingly casual answer that left critics stunned. He shrugged and muttered, “We keep it, I guess.”
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That response collided sharply with months of Trump insisting U.S. actions in Venezuelan waters were about stopping drugs, even though the administration has never offered public evidence that any of the destroyed or seized vessels were carrying narcotics.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, said federal agents executed a seizure warrant on the crude tanker, which had been used to ship sanctioned oil from both Venezuela and Iran.
The video Pam Bondi just released shows how the US stole an entire tanker of oil on Venezuelan waters. It shows six troops, probably members of the US Coastguard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, shimmying down from ropes to the deck of the tanker — likely to be… pic.twitter.com/RIYkveNVWz
Bondi posted a video showing a helicopter hovering over the vessel as U.S. soldiers rappelled onto the deck with weapons drawn — footage that drew immediate scrutiny scrutiny for a dramatic display that has little connection to typical counter-narcotics operations.
On social media, the reactions were swift and furious.