President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. has collected more than $13 billion from the sale of Venezuelan crude oil since the overthrow of former President Nicolás Maduro.

The U.S. seized control of Venezuela’s oil exports after capturing Maduro in a military raid on Jan. 3. Trump was responding to a question about a Financial Times’ report that estimated how much money his administration had collected from the sales.

″$13 billion from Venezuela? I think even more than that,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to Michigan to tour a General Motors’ facility. “We’ve paid for that war many times over.”

Trump said the money is used to run Venezuela. “We’re taking in a lot of money — billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela,” Trump said.


https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/27/trump-says-us-has-sold-more-than-13-billion-of-v...