MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump suggests Venezuela become the 51st US state and elect a governor

“We’re bringing out a lot of oil for ourselves, a lot. It will become a prosperous country, and who knows? Maybe someday soon it will become a prosperous 51st state. That’s possible,” Trump said

US President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that Venezuela become the 51st US state and that its citizens elect a governor instead of a president, at a rally at the port of Corpus Christi, Texas, where he announced the arrival of the first shipment of one million barrels of Venezuelan oil obtained under an agreement between Washington and Caracas.

“We’re bringing out a lot of oil for ourselves, a lot. It will become a prosperous country, and who knows? Maybe someday soon it will become a prosperous 51st state. That’s possible,” Trump said, standing beside an oil tanker at an event backing Republican candidates a week before the November 3 midterm elections. “Let’s make it. Let’s make it the 51st state. And instead of a president, we’ll have an election for a governor. How about that? You know, they have a lot of oil.”

The president thanked Venezuela for a relationship he described as “very, very good” and presented the shipment as “a historic win that gives us control over a massive part of the world’s oil supply”. The crude, which Trump described as free, will be refined in Texas, including in Corpus Christi. “Billions and billions of dollars are now being invested by the biggest oil companies,” he added.

It is not the first time Trump has raised annexing Venezuela. In February he said it could become the 53rd state, after Canada and Greenland, and in August he shared a map of the country in the colours of the US flag with the caption “51st state”. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has rejected the idea on several occasions; in July she said Venezuela has more than two centuries of sovereignty.

The remarks come amid close cooperation between the two governments. After the US military operation on January 3 that removed Nicolás Maduro from power, now jailed and on trial in New York, Washington recognised Rodríguez’s government, lifted sanctions on her and her brother, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, and in August sealed an oil agreement giving it majority control over a significant share of Venezuela’s reserves. The State Department has said that under the roadmap negotiated with the opposition, Rodríguez should leave the presidency vacant in 2027, although the presidential election still has no date.

The rally came two days after opposition leader María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela after nearly ten months abroad. Trump said he hoped Machado “is safe”, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington had urged Rodríguez to allow her return. The acting president called the opposition leader’s arrival a “show”.