Ben Rhodes

And in some cases, they are still angry about Chavez nationalizing the industry and taking their stuff back in the 2000s.

And Exxon actually still wants to be reimbursed.

for billions from that time.

And at the meeting last week, Trump dismissed the idea of like oil reparations for these companies saying, we're not going to look at what people lost in the past because that was their fault.

That was a different president.

You're going to make a lot of money, but we're not going back, end quote.

And then on top of that, like Venezuela's oil itself is kind of challenging.

It's known as heavy sour crude, which is expensive to extract and refine and is very corrosive.

Does not taste good.

And the economist says that the break even price for the main Venezuelan project exceed $80 a barrel.

But global prices now are around $60 a barrel, and Trump wants them down to 50.

But if we get down to $50 a barrel, that's going to destroy the US shale industry.

It will no longer be able to be profitable.

And it will be a threat to OPEC, especially the Saudis, who have dug themselves a giant financial hole with stupid fucking investments like the Line Hotel.

City.

Yeah, sorry, the Line City.

They have a ski resort somewhere that MBS is still trying to finish, so we got to keep oil up.

A little warm.

Yeah.

So just a little context about how complicated this project is as compared to Trump's rhetoric, Ben.