Trump’s Venezuela Plan Is Peak Petrobrain

Americans are suffering an affordability crisis—it’s just not primarily caused by pain at the pump. In October, the Urban Institute found that over the last eight years, childcare costs, rents, home sales, health insurance premiums all outpaced the growth in American wages since 2017. The same research also showed that over the last six years, grocery prices too had outpaced earnings.

What’s more, Trump’s policies are exacerbating the problem. Last month, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that his tariffs had raised grocery prices; his cuts to the programs that make health care more affordable will cause suffering for millions; his cuts to rental assistance will make it harder for many tenants to afford their homes; his tariffs on construction materials will increase costs for both homebuyers and renters; and his cuts to federal financial aid programs will make college less affordable. The CBPP found too that all these cost increases would hit low- and moderate-income Americans the hardest. Trump’s rollback of Biden’s energy investments—including his irrational war on renewable energy, especially wind—will also raise energy bills and leave many struggling with cold in the winter and heat in the summer.

Nor is there much evidence an imperialist occupation of Venezuela’s resources would even bring down oil prices for Americans. Experts say the amount of oil in question is too small to make a difference to the average consumer and that there is already too much oil flooding the global market. While some oil companies may indeed make a profit off ventures in Venezuela, the outlook for the industry in general is a little less clear: According to another Politico report, the biggest companies are also the most skeptical. Exxon’s CEO called Venezuela “uninvestable” in a meeting at the White House on Friday, to which Trump later responded with his characteristically constructive efforts at dialogue. (That is, he threatened to exclude the oil giant altogether: “I’d be inclined to keep Exxon out. I didn’t like their response.”) According to Reuters, boosting oil output in Venezuela could weaken the global oil market and hurt oil companies in the United States, which are already losing profits and laying off workers.