Trump says Venezuela could 'some day soon' become the 51st US state as he shows off oil tanker in Texas; Rodríguez says no Venezuelan oil leaves unpaid

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday 27 October that Venezuela could one day become the 51st state of the United States, speaking at a midterm campaign rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he showed off a tanker he said was carrying Venezuelan oil, The Guardian and The Independent reported.

“Maybe some day soon it’ll become a prosperous 51st state,” Trump said of Venezuela. “That’s possible.”

Trump said the ship off the Texas coast had “one million barrels of oil on it” and described the cargo as part of a US oil agreement with Venezuela’s interim government. “We’re celebrating the greatest oil victory in history,” he said, adding that the oil was being provided to the United States “at zero cost to the American taxpayer”, according to The Guardian. Before the rally he wrote on Truth Social: “By unleashing Energy Dominance from Alaska, all the way down to Venezuela, I have made the Western Hemisphere the Energy Capital of the World.”

The United States attacked Venezuela in January and captured its long-time leader Nicolás Maduro, who was taken to New York to face criminal charges. Venezuela has not held elections since then, The Guardian reported.

Venezuela’s response

Speaking in Guacara, Carabobo state, on Tuesday, acting President Delcy Rodríguez responded to Trump’s description of the oil as a gift: “There is not a single barrel of oil that leaves this country without being paid for,” she said, adding that the same applied to gas and gold and that the revenue was for “our people”, Gran Caracas News reported. She did not directly address the 51st state remark in the comments reported.

When Trump made a similar remark in May, Rodríguez said Venezuela becoming a US state “is not planned” and “would never be planned”, CNN en Español reported.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as National Security Advisor, joined Trump on the trip and visited the tanker with him; Trump called him on stage at the Corpus Christi rally, AFP reported. A State Department official said Rubio was travelling with Trump in his capacity as National Security Advisor, according to AFP. For Rubio’s latest comments on Venezuela’s election timetable, see our earlier report. See also: Trump says he will respect midterm results ‘if they’re honest elections’.