‘Trump’s goal is he wants the oil’: Adam Smith slams Trump’s foreign policy shift

Congressman Adam Smith, D-WA, said President Donald Trump’s moves to seize Venezuelan oil and threaten military force against Greenland represent a dangerous return to a pre-World War II mentality where powerful nations simply take what they want.

“The strong take what they can; the weak suffer what they must,” Smith told “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio, citing the old foreign policy maxim. “There’s no rule of law. There’s no sovereignty. The more powerful countries take what they want and do what they want. That led to a whole series of world wars.”

Smith, the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, spoke as the Trump administration moved aggressively to assert control over Venezuela’s oil. U.S. forces seized two more tankers this week, and Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. can “control” Venezuela’s “purse strings” by dictating where its oil can be sold.

“We control the energy resources, and we tell the regime, you’re allowed to sell the oil so long as you serve America’s national interest,” Vance said in a Fox News interview. “And that’s how we exert incredible pressure on that country without wasting a single American life.”

Smith said that the message confirms what he’s been warning about.

“What is Trump’s goal here? I think the easiest way to sum up Trump’s goal is he wants the oil,” Smith said. “He wants U.S. oil companies to have greater control over Venezuelan oil. But he hasn’t seemed to give much thought to what comes next.”

Trump cuts oil deal with Maduro regime while sidelining Venezuela’s elected leaders, Smith says

Smith noted that Venezuela has legitimate opposition leaders who won the 2024 election that Maduro stole: Edmundo González and María Corina Machado, who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Trump pushed both of them aside,” Smith said. “Now we have in power, basically, the Maduro regime still in power. His vice president has stepped up and taken over, and we appear to be focused on cutting a deal to get Venezuela’s oil.”

Indeed, acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez, a Maduro loyalist, tried to normalize the new arrangement Wednesday, calling it “neither extraordinary nor irregular,” according to the Associated Press.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that Venezuela’s interim authorities “understand that the only way they can move oil and generate revenue and not have economic collapse is if they cooperate and work with the United States.”

Smith said that the arrangement undermines any claim of supporting democracy.

“Removing Maduro and putting his underlings in power just so they will give us their oil doesn’t help Venezuela,” he said.

Could Putin use Trump’s rationale to remove Zelensky? Smith says yes

Smith said Trump’s approach sends a dangerous message to adversaries like Russia and China.

“That absolutely sends a message to Putin and Xi and every other wannabe dictator out there in the world who thinks they can build up an army and go take what they want,” Smith said.

KIRO Newsradio asked whether Russia could use the same rationale to remove Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“The president has basically decided that the U.S. has the right to simply remove another country’s president by force when we feel like it,” Smith said. “What do we say to Putin if he says, ‘Well, I’m going to go in and remove Zelensky’?”

Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, recently dismissed concerns about international norms. Smith said Miller’s view sums up the administration’s worldview.

“Stephen Miller summed up the Trump way of looking at the world best: screw all of that,” Smith said. “It’s a jungle out there, people. We’re back to Thomas Hobbes. Nasty, brutish, and short life. The powerful take what they want.”

Trump doesn’t rule out military force against NATO ally Denmark to take Greenland

Smith said the same mentality applies to Trump’s comments about Greenland, where the president has refused to rule out using military force to take the territory from Denmark, a NATO ally.

“Trump is the first president to threaten to take it by force. Even in the nineteenth century, we didn’t say that,” Smith said. “Threatening one of those core partners, a very reliable partner by the way, with military force to take territory from them undermines everything we’re trying to do.”

Smith said America’s strength has always come from partnerships and alliances.

“That’s the other problem with ‘might makes right’: you tend to wind up going it alone.”

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

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