Late Tuesday, Donald Trump announced his intention to sell Venezuelan oil to create a massive pool of money that he can distribute at his own discretion. On Wednesday morning, the pushback began in earnest. The New York Times reported:
President Trump’s declaration that he would personally control the proceeds from oil produced in Venezuela drew instant condemnation on Wednesday from Democrats in Congress who noted that the president had no constitutional authority for such an undertaking.
‘The president cannot grab Venezuela’s oil for his own slush fund. Period,’ Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland and a member of the Appropriations Committee, said on Wednesday.
As constitutional debates go, this one’s easy. The sitting American president announced a plan in which Venezuela would “turn over” roughly $3 billion in oil to the United States. The Republican administration would then sell the foreign country’s resources and, according to Trump’s written statement, the resulting money would be “controlled by” him.
In the U.S., the president can’t create his own pile of money that Congress never approved and then start allocating those funds as he pleases. The Appropriations Clause of the Constitution gives lawmakers what’s known as the power of the purse. When Trump effectively responds, “I’m going to have my own purse,” there’s a problem.
Nevertheless, over the course of Wednesday, leading members of the administration, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, publicly endorsed the model the president had sketched out online, explaining that the revenue generated by selling Venezuelan oil will go into “accounts” that the Republican administration will oversee.
GOP lawmakers haven’t said whether they’re prepared to endorse such an unconstitutional power grab, but the inevitable legal and political fights are poised to be dramatic and important.
Meanwhile, Trump issued a related online statement almost 24 hours later, announcing, “I have just been informed that Venezuela is going to be purchasing ONLY American Made Products, with the money they receive from our new Oil Deal.” In other words, the American president is seizing control of a foreign country’s resources, selling those resources and generating a pool of money. Now he’s planning to give the foreign country (of which he claims to be in charge) some undetermined amount of the proceeds, to be spent on American products. It sounds less like a “deal” and more like a “shakedown.” This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post
Recommended
