President Donald Trump declared Saturday that the U.S. is “taking out tremendous amounts of oil” from Venezuela while vowing to “take care” of Cuba’s regime following America’s focus on Iran.
The president, speaking at the Shield of the Americas Summit in Florida, prefaced his remarks by saying that since the January operation to capture former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, the administration has “been working closely with the new president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez,” and, “she’s doing a great job working with us.”
“And we’re taking out tremendous amounts of oil. They’re making more money now than they’ve ever made, ever made. We have the big oil companies in. They are making more money, we’re getting some,” Trump said. “They’re getting a lot. They’re making more money now than they’ve ever made in the history of their country.”
“And I’m pleased to say that this week we have formally recognized the Venezuelan government. We’ve actually legally recognized them. We have also just reached a historic gold deal that’s called the gold deal with Venezuela, to allow our two countries to work together to facilitate the sale of Venezuelan gold and other minerals,” Trump continued, describing a license issued by the Treasury Department Friday that prohibits people and companies from Iran, North Korea, Russia and Cuba from doing business with Minerven – Venezuela’s state-owned gold mining company – among other measures.
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“As we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela, we’re also looking forward to the great change that will soon be coming to Cuba. Cuba’s at the end of the line,” Trump also said. “They’re very much at the end of the line. They have no money, they have no oil. They have a bad philosophy. They have a bad regime that’s been bad for a long time. And they used to get the money from Venezuela. They get the oil from Venezuela, but they don’t have any money from Venezuela. They don’t have any oil,” Trump added.
Trump in January had declared a national emergency via an executive order over Cuba, accusing the communist regime of aligning with hostile foreign powers and terrorist groups while moving to punish countries that supply the island nation with oil.
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Trump said Saturday that Cuba is “negotiating with [Secretary of State] Marco [Rubio] and myself and some others. And I would think a deal would be made very easily with Cuba.”
“But Cuba is in its last moments of life as it was. It’ll have a great new life, but it’s in its last moments of life, the way it is,” the president added.
The State Department described the Shield of the Americas Summit in Doral as a gathering of the “strongest likeminded allies in our hemisphere to promote freedom, security, and prosperity in our region.”
Trump said America’s “focus right now is on Iran,” but “many of you have come today, and they say, ‘I hope you can take care of Cuba because you’ve had problems with Cuba, right? You mentioned.”
“I was surprised, but, four of you said, actually, ‘could you do us a favor? Take care of Cuba.’ I’ll take care of it, okay?” Trump said, garnering applause.
Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
