Sumi Somaskanda
speaker
168 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Jan 2026
last heard 8 Jul
Sumi Somaskanda’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Look, what's important to know is that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world at around 303 billion barrels.
Its oil capacity is completely underutilized.
That's because of endemic corruption and also a lack of investment for many years here.
President Trump has been very clear.
He sees Venezuela as really a vast source of potential for American oil companies to reap the benefits of those oil resources here in Venezuela.
In fact, The Washington Post had even reported that President Trump informed oil companies before and after that operation to remove Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela.
Imagine
He didn't notify Congress, but did, according to The Washington Post, notify those oil companies.
So really interesting to see that this has been a massive focus of President Trump.
Although we originally talked about drug trafficking and migration, it is clear that being part of Venezuela's oil industry is a massive factor in why President Trump has engaged with Venezuela militarily.
Well, on the one hand, it's important to know that Greenland is home to some critical minerals that the U.S.
would like to access, so uranium and iron.
But President Trump has said it's not about the minerals.
It is about national security.
As Paul just touched on, it's being seen as a territory that is important strategically and militarily.
And President Trump has said Chinese and Russian ships are all around Greenland.
And he sees it as important for the U.S.
to own to be able to gain that access militarily as well.
Now, it is important to note as well that, you know, that NATO military alliance, of course, the U.S.
knows it is the biggest provider to that military alliance.
Showing 141–160 of 168 · page 8 of 9
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