Raw Story

by Esteban ROJAS

President Donald Trump has revoked the licenses that allowed several transnational oil and gas companies to operate in Venezuela despite the country being under US sanctions.

After US energy giant Chevron, Washington has ordered a handful of other energy firms, including Spain's Repsol and France's Maurel & Prom, to cease operating in Venezuela.

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Trump, who is seeking to force out authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, has also announced plans for 25 percent tariffs on imports from any country buying Venezuelan oil and gas.

What's next for the struggling Caribbean country, which has the world's largest-known oil reserves but has become increasingly isolated since July 2024 elections that President Nicolas Maduro is accused of stealing?

- Will the oil stop flowing? -

In 2019, during his first term in office, Trump imposed an embargo on Venezuelan oil in response to 2018 elections that were already marred by fraud allegations.

Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil giant was in freefall at the time, beset by corruption scandals, mismanagement and a crippling lack of investment.

Oil output buckled under the weight of the sanctions, falling from around three million barrels per day at the start of the 2000s to below 400,000 b/d in 2020.

The sector recovered some ground after former US president Joe Biden in 2022 eased the sanctions in return for a promise by Maduro to allow fair elections.

Biden later reimposed most sanctions when it became clear that Maduro was not keeping his side of the bargain, but allowed Chevron to continue operations.

Today, Venezuela produces around 900,000 barrels per day of which Chevron contributes about 220,000, Repsol about 60,000, and Maurel & Prom between 20,000 and 25,000.

Washington has given Chevron and the other companies until May 27 to wind up their operations.

"PDVSA ...now has some operational capacity, although we don't know how big it is," Gilberto Morillo, PDVSA's former financial manager told AFP.

- Who will buy it? -

Even if PDVSA manages to keep pumping oil, finding a way to monetize it "is another matter," Morillo said, pointing to the threatened 25-percent US tariffs on countries that buy its crude.

In February, Venezuela exported approximately 500,000 barrels per day to China, 240,000 to the United States, and 70,000 to India and Spain.

In the past, sanctions forced PDVSA to discount the oil and to find partners to circumvent the sanctions.

Caracas also attempted to trade crude oil through a cryptocurrency scheme, which ended with then oil minister Tareck El Aissami being jailed for corruption in a case that cost the country more than $15 billion, according to media reports.

- What impact for the economy? -

The situation looks set to pile further misery on an economy already in tatters.

The price of dollars has soared on the black market as Venezuelans fear falling oil revenue will trigger another bout of hyperinflation and a return to the kind of deep recession the country experienced between 2014 and 2021.

The forced pullout of gas producers could also have an impact on the country's crumbling energy infrastructure, leading to more blackouts.

Repsol pointed out that 85 percent of its operations in Venezuela were related to the production of natural gas, which it warned "supports part of the electricity network."

The cancellation of the licenses will prevent PDVSA from using oil to pay the foreign energy companies for gas, as it had been doing, Morillo explained.

"If PDVSA can't pay them, then it generates a debt," he said.

But if the energy firms decide "ok, we'll close down and leave...they would lose their entire investment," he argued.

Vice President J.D. Vance revealed something in the now-infamous Trump administration Signal chat is a bigger deal than the attack plans put forth by Pete Hegseth, according to an expert analyst.

Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA official with 26 years in the agency behind him, appeared on MSNBC over the weekend, where he was asked about the Signal scandal. He claimed that the unsecured chat leak was only part of why people in the Pentagon are tiring of Hegseth's behavior.

Polymeropoulos was further asked about reports that Republicans are enraged at Vance, because he purportedly dropped GOP jaws when he sought to "block an order from Trump."

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Polymeropoulos was asked if this was part of a "growing rift" among Republicans, and he said that this portion of the Signal leak with Vance was more revelatory than the attack plans themselves.

"What was really interesting to me on the Signal chat was not the tactical military planning, which is really bad, of course, that was classified information that could have gotten U.S. pilots hurt, but it was the policy discussions, which, by the way, also are absolutely classified," he said. "The policy discussions were really interesting because Vance seems to be kind of pursuing what we know to be more of an isolationist bent. You know, he certainly has this kind of pathological hatred of Europe. But there did seem to be policy divisions. And so that kind of spilled out in public."

The security expert then added, "And I think, you know, President Trump probably does not like that. And that's, I think, reflective of some of the Republican allies being being critical of the vice president."

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Despite all my moaning since a slim majority of Americans decided it was safer to carry on with their lives walking a tightrope without any safety nets, than it was to stay grounded, and together against the billionaires who have proved over and over again they want to eat us all, I have been mighty proud of the good and righteous people on the Left.

Too many Americans don’t deserve us, but the idea of America does, dammit. Despite being knocked down and staying down on that gray November day, we picked ourselves up and braved the fascist winds that are blowing at a gale off the Potomac right now.

This was no easy thing.

Watching our country double-down on a repulsive madman, and a party that provably means us harm was like a knife to the heart. Even today, it defies anything rational or decent.

We have hit town halls, and rallied in the freezing cold at our Capitals. We have canvassed, made phone calls and written our congresspeople. We are showing up everywhere to fight against the same terrible things better people than us did while sacrificing their lives on the battlefield.

You know, in the painful hours that followed the most consequential election in our nation’s history November 5th, I typed a piece through defiance and tears that ended up getting a lot of read: DO NOT SUBMIT.

I remember it being about the easiest thing I have ever written, because if you are reading this you almost certainly know that the only way to beat evil is to never give into it.

Except that is exactly what too many institutions, including the Democratic Party, have been doing. And while the party is finally showing some signs of life, all thanks to us, these institutions are caving into the orange, American-attacking felon exactly like he does every time he’s in a room with Vladimir Putin.

It is just disgusting to watch, it really is.

On Thursday afternoon, the University of Michigan became the latest institution of “higher learning” to bow down to Trump, when they offered up a public sacrifice of their once proud, state-of-the-art Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program because the grifter was threatening to pull OUR money from the university.

Up until Thursday, Michigan had been at the forefront of helping to lead America out of the darkness, into the light, and toward a better place where our children were "not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

You won’t find a more noble or necessary cause.

In the story I linked to above in the Detroit Free Press, Rebekah Modrak, the chair of the faculty senate hit a home run with this beauty:

“The federal government is determined to dismantle and control higher education and to make our institutions more uniform, more inequitable, and more exclusive. They are using the power of the government to engineer a sweeping culture change towards white supremacy. Unfortunately, University of Michigan leaders seem determined to comply and to collaborate in our own destruction.”

Michigan’s surrender follows similar gross actions from scores of other places that should know better. Places like museums, libraries, and department stores, are all tearing up their DEI initiatives faster than Trump can devour three Big Macs.

Makes you wonder how important DEI really was at these places if they are now ready to turn on a dime a run like the dickens from ‘em.

Law firms are falling at Trump’s fat, little feet, because apparently it’s become just too damn expensive to stand on the right side of the law.

Even ABC-News disgraced itself when it settled with the American-attacker for $15 million in a defamation suit they win 999 out of 1000 times. This is one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen as journalist, and lately I’ve seen more than enough.

But really, just when in the hell is even one of these places going to say, “You know what, pal? Take your racist ass on out of here. We’ll get along just fine without you, or we’ll see you in court. Up to you, sport.”

In fact, the first place that says that will get a big, fat donation from me. And I’ll bet you I’m not alone.

It is brutal watching all this.

When in the hell are these places going to learn what you and I already know: Silver-spoon fed punks like the draft-dodging Trump see capitulation and submission as a weakness. Once you do it once, he’ll be harrumphing back again demanding more. It’s all about the humiliation with this insecure baby, who never did get over being dumped in some military boarding school, because his parents found him impossible to be around.

As for the diversity aspect of all this, it’s taken this complete mess of an administration but four months to prove that we have never needed it more in this country.

Take a look at the so-called cabinet that this orange bigot who sees “fine people” on both sides of a KKK rally has assembled. It is not only stuffed with more white males than any cabinet since — no surprise — Ronald Reagan’s, but has more clowns in it than the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, Project 2025’s Russell Vought just to name a few ...

Then there are the three white women who have gleefully lowered themselves into that despicable cabinet headlined by a puppy-killer.

Consider the big news this week, when we found out a group of geniuses led by Hegseth, the stone-cold drunk who is somehow leading our Defense Department, came within inches of getting our best, brightest, and bravest killed when they treated the launch of a strategic airstrike in Yemen with all the secrecy and regard they’d give some fantasy football draft at a topless bar.

Great job there, fellas. The only reason you still have your damn jobs is precisely because you are white. So let’s save all this handwringing over the harm DEI initiatives are having on America, you incompetent nitwits. You are precisely the reason they were needed in the first place.

Any university that goes along with that and these guys, isn’t worth a dollar of tuition. Any university that is too stupid to see what is going on in America right now, and the parallels to what happened in Germany in the 1930s and ‘40s should just get out of the education business altogether.

Look, I have long been a supporter of our universities, even if I never attended one. I fancied these places as institutions of higher learning that educated our young people, and prepared them for life’s long, hard road ahead — and the odious sins of our past.

My only real gripe with ‘em has been their price tag. Who the hell can afford to send their kids to these places?

Actually, never mind, I know the answer …

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.

Donald Trump on Sunday lashed out at the media in connection with coverage related to his administration inadvertently leaking Yemen attack plans on the Signal app.

Trump took to his Truth Social site over the weekend, first to announce the removal of a White House tree that was planted by Andrew Jackson, and then to praise a GOP lawmaker who defended the administration in connection with the Signal scandal.

"A GREAT job by Senator Markwayne Mullin on beating back Kristen Welker’s, and the the Radical Left’s Witch Hunt, on the never ending Signal story," Trump wrote with a typo on the word "the." "They just don’t stop - Over and over they go!"

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Trump then added, "Meet the Fake Press should instead explain how successful the attack was, and how Sleepy Joe Biden should have done it YEARS AGO."

"This story and narrative is so old and boring, but only used because we are having the most successful 'First One Hundred Presidential Days' in the history of America, and they can’t find anything else to talk about," Trump claimed. "The Fake News Media has the lowest Approval Ratings in history, and for good reason. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!"

President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he would place a 25% tariff (or tax) on “all cars that are not made in the United States,” as well as certain automobile parts. The markets began responding with mere mention of a press conference about auto tariffs late Wednesday.

By Thursday morning, stocks fell at the market's opening.

CNBC reported, "General Motors stock was down about 8% in morning trading Thursday, while Stellantis lost nearly 4% and Ford Motor shares were down 2%. Shares of Tesla, however, were nearly 2% higher."

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The general Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied by late morning.

On Thursday, Deutsche Bank analysts assessed that “GM has the most exposure to Mexico.”

“In our coverage, for [original equipment manufacturers], Tesla and Ford appear to be the most shielded given location of vehicle assembly facilities, although Ford does face incremental exposure on imported engines,” they also said, according to CNBC.

The site explained that most vehicles are made of "tens of thousands of parts, many of which cross back and forth over the U.S. border before a final product is completed."

A Goldman Sachs analyst warned that Trump’s 25% tariff could mean higher prices for imported cars.

"If roughly 50% of parts in a U.S.-made car came from foreign sources, the tariff could raise the price of those cars by $3,000 to $8,000," they added according to CNBC.

The United Auto Workers Union is excited about it, however.

“These tariffs are a major step in the right direction for autoworkers and blue-collar communities across the country, and it is now on the automakers, from the Big Three to Volkswagen and beyond, to bring back good union jobs to the U.S.,” said UAW president Shawn Fain in a statement Wednesday.

Read the full report here.

Americans are keenly interested in the newly revealed Signal chats involving Donald Trump's high-ranking officials, and CNN's Harry Enten explained why that could pose a political problem.

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg reported earlier this week that he had been added by national security adviser Mike Waltz to a group chat involving vice president J.D. Vance and defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who disclosed top-secret plans about a military operation in Yemen, and Enten said interest in the encrypted messaging app and the publication has exploded.

"Sometimes I get a little surprised when I look at some of the data, and, of course, it's very early on in this, but we can look at Google searches, and I think it gives you an idea that there's a lot of interest in this story," Enten said. "All right, Google searches this week versus last week for these topics for The Atlantic, how many people are searching for The Atlantic – up 900 percent. That is the highest on record since Google searches began. They started tracking them back in 2004. How about for Signal, of course, the app on which this all occurred? Up over 1,000 percent again the highest on record. It has gone up through the roof on these two particular topics."

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"Whether or not people ultimately end up caring and it changes their minds about the administration, that's one thing," Enten added, "but the interest at this particular point is absolutely there. People are interested in this story, right? Beyond the interest, their take on it, you don't read that in a Google search, but there is interest, absolutely."

Other members of Trump's cabinet, including secretary of state Marco Rubio and treasury secretary Scott Bessent, took part in the chat, which could have potentially exposed top-secret information to foreign adversaries, and CNN's Kate Bolduan wondered whether the scandal would hurt their already low public standing.

"Trump's cabinet, obviously, many of them are on this group chat," Bolduan said. "Many of them are facing a lot of scrutiny and questions right now. Trump's cabinet, to this point, before this, was already on somewhat, I don't know, we call it thin ice. "

Enten agreed they already had low approval ratings compared to previous administrations.

"Here we go, all right – disappointed with the administration appointments of these different presidents, you might notice only one of these presidents, only one of these terms that were a majority disappointed," Enten said, looking at data to Bill Clinton's first term, in 1993. "Look at this: In 2025, 52 percent were already disappointed with Donald Trump's picks for his administration. That is the first time you get a majority. Back in 2017, was only 44 percent [disappointed] for Donald Trump. Before that, you see 16 [percent], 17 [percent], 14 [percent]. Joe Biden's picks were not, in fact, polled, but less than 40 percent disapproved in separate Pew polling."

"So the bottom line is, even going into this, there was already a lot of skepticism about Donald Trump's picks for his cabinet, for his appointments," Enten added. "There's no doubt in my mind that this number will almost certainly tick a little bit upwards, because we already were dealing with a public that was quite skeptical. This story can only make things worse. "

The problem seems especially acute for Hegseth, who is already deeply unpopular.

"Obviously he's very much in the middle of this story," Enten said. "Despite what some of trump defenders try to say, if you speak to [retired general] Spider Marks, for example, he would absolutely say that Pete Hegseth was right in the middle, and again, what you see here was the most unpopular defense secretary going all the way back, you have to go all the way back to Donald Rumsfeld, who, of course, was basically kind of forced out a little bit back in 2006. The unfavorable rating for Pete Hegseth [is] 42 percent compared to this favorable rating, that was only 30 percent. Many more Americans disliked Pete Hegseth coming into the scandal than liked him."

"Again, skeptical, skeptical, skeptical public, they're only going to probably become more skeptical, and seeing how again, seeing where they begin and how it evolves as we continue to cover it," Enten added.

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