John Addison, front right, energy trader for Vitol, attends a meeting with oil company executives hosted by US President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House on January 9, 2026. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
“Trump took Venezuela’s oil at gunpoint, and gave it to one of his biggest campaign donors,” wrote one US senator.
The first US sale of Venezuelan oil since the Trump administration illegally attacked the South American country earlier this month went to the company of a trader who donated millions to President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The roughly $250 million sale of Venezuelan crude went to Vitol, a Geneva-based energy and commodity trading firm whose US arm is headquartered in Houston. The Financial Timesreported late last week that John Addison, a senior trader at Vitol, was involved in his company’s efforts to secure the deal.
Addison, who attended a recent White House meeting with other top oil executives, donated $6 million total to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign via several super PACs, including $5 million to MAGA Inc.
“Addison pledged to Trump at the [White House] event that Vitol would attain the best price possible for Venezuelan oil for the US, ‘so that the influence you have over the Venezuelans will ensure that you get what you want,’” according to the Financial Times.
US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), noted on social media that Vitol has a “criminal history of bribing foreign governments” and called the Venezuelan oil deal “fundamentally corrupt.”
“Trump took Venezuela’s oil at gunpoint, and gave it to one of his biggest campaign donors,” Murphy wrote. “Vitol had to buy access to Trump because under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t be able to get a deal like this.”
Vitol is one of a number of corporations positioned to reap windfall profits from the Trump administration’s assault on Venezuela, abduction of its president, and efforts to seize and indefinitely control the country’s vast oil reserves.
Hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer’s firm Elliott Investment Management has for years been in the process of acquiring distressed Venezuelan-owned assets in the US and is on the cusp of owning them. After clearing final regulatory and legal approval, the firm can use them to make a considerable profit turning newly available Venezuelan oil into gasoline. The company that would be acquired by an Elliott affiliate is Citgo, the Houston-based refining firm owned by Venezuela’s state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Citgo owns refineries in Illinois, Louisiana and Texas that are well-positioned to profit off the millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil that Trump says will be steered to US refineries because it is a particularly heavy blend of crude that is difficult to process. Only certain refineries, like those run by Citgo, are equipped to handle it.
Proceeds from the US sale of Venezuelan oil are being stashed in Qatar—an arrangement that critics said opens the door to additional corruption.
“After illegally and unconstitutionally striking Venezuela, Trump is now selling Venezuelan oil through a campaign donor, and funneling the proceeds to an offshore account in Qatar—creating a potential slush fund with no accountability, oversight, or guardrails for Trump and his allies,” US Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) wrote late Sunday. “His continued abuse of power doesn’t serve the Venezuelan people or the American people—and it certainly doesn’t lower costs for Americans.”
“This outrage,” Booker added, “is yet another example of his unchecked corruption as he again ignores laws and enriches his friends, donors, and himself.”
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Protesters chant outside New York Supreme Court ahead of former President Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial, Oct. 2, 2023 in New York. Many argue he needs to be tried again – this time for war crimes. | Brittainy Newman / AP
What a start to the New Year! The shocking invasion of Venezuela by the U.S. and the brutal kidnapping of the head of state and his wife, the [killing] by ICE of a 37-year-old mother of three on the streets of Minneapolis followed the very next day by a Border Patrol agent shooting of a couple in Portland, Ore., and then another ICE shooting in Minneapolis.
2026 started with the Venezuela outrage. The U.S. invasion of Venezuela and abduction of its president and his wife are the actions of a racist rogue state headed by a convicted criminal and should be sanctioned by the United Nations. The Trump regime brazenly and blatantly violated international law and killed dozens in its attack.
The run-up to the incursion were the Trump-ordered boat strikes that have so far killed 115 people. The U.S. military has declined again and again to providence any evidence to justify its slaughter on the seas. The reason being that there is no evidence to condone the wanton murders.
For this reason alone, Trump and the U.S. military should have been charged with war crimes before the appropriate tribunal of the United Nations. But no case was ever brought, as it should have been, by the countries of which these poor souls were citizens. The Trump regime was let off the hook for these dozens of homicides by the international community. The killings were simply a pretext for more imperialist atrocities.
In the wake of these continuing murders, which began in September, the war criminal Trump planned further outrages, culminating so far in the bloody, illegal raid of Jan. 3. This was emblematic of a shameless imperialism that knows no boundaries when it comes to international law. That it was illegal is beyond any sensible doubt. Remember, also, that the issue of whether the killing of two survivors of a Sept. 2 boat strike was a war crime has been dropped from the news feeds.
There was never any evidence to substantiate the barbarous boat strikes, and even if there was some so-called evidence, it still would not justify the summary boat strike executions.
If the same standards were applied to the United States which it holds over other countries, it would suffer the condemnation of the international community followed by appropriate and severe sanctions. Trump and his cohorts would be charged formally as war criminals and have their assets frozen. This would extend to the U.S. military personnel who followed illegal orders.
These sanctions would be directed against not only Trump and his immediate partners in crime, such as Hegseth and Rubio and the military, but also against members of Congress who support his lawless, imperialist terrorist actions and corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle.
The United States would be treated like the international outlaw that it is. Nations would terminate diplomatic relations with the U.S. and expel its ambassadors. U.S. games and tournaments would be boycotted, including the future World Cup and Summer Olympics. The countries of the world would be issuing travel advisories to their citizens discouraging visits to the U.S. in order to negatively impact its tourism industry.
If the U.N. gave some teeth to its pronouncements, the U.S. would certainly feel some pain for violating the U.N. Charter and international law.
Moving forward, the argument that the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores was a justifiable “law enforcement” procedure is beyond being legally absurd. That simply is not how international law works. One country cannot simply indict a citizen, a national living in another country, and proceed to physically remove said citizen. International law mandates that such a removal must take place by utilization of an extradition treaty for that purpose, if one exists between different sovereign nations.
To invade and abduct is blatantly illegal by any stretch of the imagination, to say the least. This is against the policy of international peace embodied in the U.N. Charter.
But, alas we live in a world where imperialist outlaws like Trump hold sway. We live in a world where there is no effective opposition party in the U.S. to step forward. We live in a world where the power of mass protests, the raw power of the people, must come forward to confront the raw, naked power of brazen imperialism represented by the Trump regime.
This writer, who is also a former public defender, has taken the time to examine and review the indictment against Maduro, his wife Flores, and others of his government. The indictment says precious little about Maduro. It is a kangaroo court document of only 25 pages. It is legally inadequate to substantiate criminal charges against Maduro even if he had been residing in the United States. There are even some who opine that Maduro can beat the charges in a court proceeding. That is if the court is fair.
On the comical side of matters, Trump has just said that the “only thing” restraining his actions is his “own morality.” Trump—a convicted felon, a sexual predator, a purveyor of the foulest racism, a fraudster, a misogynist, and flagrant imperialist—has no morality. Or, should I say, no decent morality.
More comedy, this on the international level, is exhibited by right-wing Venezuelan political figure María Corina Machado, who just gave her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump. How much more absurd is the world of the right wing going to get? First, I did not know that a Nobel Peace Prize could be so passed on so routinely to another party. Second, the Nobel Peace Prize has been forever tarnished by it being awarded to Machado in the first place. Third, to even think of giving the Peace Prize to the most bellicose political figure in U.S. history is absurd. If anything, Trump should be awarded the Nobel War Prize, if such existed.
Equally absurd is the response evinced by Trump and his underlings to the murder of 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good. They call her a “domestic terrorist” to supposedly justify her killing. Incredibly, the next day after her homicide, Border Patrol agents shot a couple in Portland, alleging that the vehicle they drove was “weaponized.” This was also alleged in the murder of Good, which seems to be the standard pretext in these heinous shootings. Now, there’s been another ICE shooting in Minneapolis, an event sure to spark more protests.
But back to international affairs. Perhaps the global community, as represented by the United Nations, should level severe sanctions against the United States government to bring its politicians to their senses. Absent that the world is headed on an unalterable course of slaughter and carnage, with Trump on a steamroller course to full-blown fascism the likes of which have not been seen the days of Hitler. Also, as crazy and demented as Trump seems, he is but the representative of the political, economic, and military aims of the far-right section of the U.S. ruling class.
What is needed is not just the removal of Trump, which would mean only a leadership change, but a regime change—which means the removal of his whole administration. With the Democratic Party also controlled by billionaires at the national level and seen by many as a lite version of the Republicans these days, it’s easy to conclude the U.S. has no effective opposition party. But there are Democrats—the liberated, unbought, unbossed, and unafraid politicians who run on the Democratic ticket—who can be a force in the people’s movement for liberation from the Trump tyranny.
But it must be noted that sanctions are a two-way street. The Trump regime is not immune to the actions of the international community if the latter has the courage to step forward. The world is beset by an imperialist monster the likes of which has not been seen in decades. The world must rise to the occasion for the sake of humanity.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.
Albert Bender is a Cherokee activist, historian, political columnist, and freelance reporter. He is currently writing a legal treatise on Native American sovereignty and working on a book on the war crimes committed by the U.S. against the Maya people in the Guatemalan civil war. He is a consulting attorney on Indigenous sovereignty, land restoration, and Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) issues.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
US President Donald Trump holds a framed Nobel Peace Prize medal given to him by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado—the actual 2025 winner—at the White House in Washington, DC on January 15, 2026. (Photo by the White House)
In 1943, the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun gave his Nobel Prize for Literature to the infamous Nazi criminal.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s gifting of her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to US President Donald Trump raised eyebrows around the world Friday—but it wasn’t the first time that the winner of the prestigious award gave it away.
Last month, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to the 58-year-old opposition leader “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
Trump has ordered the bombing of nine other countries during his two terms, more than any other president in history. US forces acting on his orders have killed thousands of civilians in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. While running for president in 2016, Trump vowed to “bomb the shit out of” Islamic State militants and “take out their families,” and then followed through on his promise.
Despite being passed over by Trump for installation in any leadership role in Venezuela so far, Machado presented Trump with her framed Nobel medal along with a certificate of gratitude during a Thursday meeting at the White House. Trump subsequently posted on his Truth Social network that “María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”
In 1943!!!“Nobel Literature laureate Knut Hamsun famously gave his Nobel medal and diploma to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as a gesture of admiration for the Nazi regime, following his support for the occupation….”
That gesture prompted the Norwegian Nobel Committee to issue a statement noting that the prize cannot be given away.
“Even if the medal or diploma later comes into someone else’s possession, this does not alter who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,” the committee said. “A laureate cannot share the prize with others, nor transfer it once it has been announced. A Nobel Peace Prize can also never be revoked. The decision is final and applies for all time.”
The committee’s statement was extraordinary—but this is not the first time that a Nobel winner gave away their prize. In 1943, Norwegian author Knut Hamsun gifted his 1920 Nobel Prize for Literature—awarded for his novel Markens Grøde (Growth of the Soil)—to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels after a trip to Germany. Other Nobel laureates have donated or sold their medals.
The progressive media outlet Occupy Democratssaid on social media: “Clearly, the similarities between Trump and Goebbels extend beyond just a mutual admiration for fascism. Both men possess(ed) the kind of spiritually sick, egotistical temperament that allows one to accept a prize that someone else has earned.”
“Obviously, Donald Trump does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize,” the outlet continued. “He has bombed Iran, Yemen, Nigeria, innocent fishing boats in the Caribbean, Venezuela, and is in the process of turning the United States into a war zone. That said, Machado doesn’t deserve it either.”
“Anyone spineless enough to surrender the prize to an evil man like Trump in the hopes of obtaining power is not someone we should be celebrating,” Occupy Democrats added.
Last month, Wikileaks founder and multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominee Julian Assangesued the Nobel Foundation—the Swedish organization that manages administration of the approximately $1.2 million-per-winner prize—in a bid to prevent Machado from receiving the money.
Machado’s win also sparked protests outside the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to United States president Barack Obama (b. 1961) for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
If you cannot imagine living without being subordinate to the Fascist United States, then you have a poor imagination
Briefly,
While it’s readily apparent that Resident Trump was a total assole before developing dementia, he’s a double fekk total assole now. It’s not strictly necessary to have a developed understanding of why the Fascist United States is behaving so badly, that it’s behaving so badly is enough.
It is worth appreciating that since the Trump administration is composed of total assoles, it’s unlikely to improve significantly with his removal or death i.e. it is likely to continue in a similar way.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
I’ll say it. All nations should distance themselves from, have nothing to do with and impose boycotts and sanctions against the Fascist United States because it’s president and current policies are Fascist disregarding acceptable norms of behaviour. There is the support and complicity in Israel’s genocide, destroying the climate and disregarding the scientific consensus that urgent climate action is needed and there is unprovoked, Fascist, imperialist invasions for oil and likely for oil and other resources in Greenland.
Unfortunately, many governments have supported this Fascism e.g. my own so-called Labour government under Keir Starmer in UK. It’s clear that they must be dismissed too. I am pleased to say that that is underway in UK.
The Fascist United States is a bankrupt failed state. Call those debts in.
To be continued …
19 Jan 2026: Insolvent rather than bankrupt? Insolvent is potentially bankrupt of course. Failed state is correct with poor governance due to corruption, instability, human rights abuses, Fascist authoritarianism.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth commemorate one year of Trump’s administration. Photo: Department of War
After the illegal US military operation against Venezuela, the United States faces a crisis of legitimacy, even among its own allies.
In these early days of January, we have had to witness what hoped never to see, though it comes as no surprise: the kidnapping of a legitimate sitting president through a criminal act of aggression by the United States.
The initial bewilderment that followed in the first hours after the US military operation has given way to actions of denunciation and expressions of solidarity worldwide. These actions are a result of serious assessment in the face of an overwhelming flow of information (some accurate, others misleading or entirely false) that circulated across social media and the formal media.
Venezuela’s state and government remain intact: the National Assembly convened on January 5 and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as acting president.
However, dawn has not yet broken over the battlefield.
There is no room for naïve optimism. The fires still burn. The lessons are not yet learned.
The US military assault on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores was no “surgical strike”. There is nothing surgical about deploying 150 aircraft, Delta Force units and then the entire ensemble of the US Southern Command (its electronic warfare systems capable of shutting down power and communications). This operation destroyed Venezuela’s military defense systems and other military installations across the country, as well as civilian structures (including warehouses holding medical equipment). Over a hundred Venezuelans were killed resisting the abduction, facing a military equipped with weapons systems funded by more than USD 1 trillion a year.
This is not only a display of power but also of desperation. The final resort after 25 years of failed operations to enact regime change in Venezuela. It is meant as a global warning: a message of force and issued by a power that has been unable to break Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution and seize control of the world’s largest oil reserves before time runs out. There is nothing new in this posture. It follows an all-to familiar script from a long history of US interventions: the coups against Jacobo Árbenz of Guatemala in 1954, João Goulart of Brazil in 1964, Juan Bosch in the Dominican Republic in 1965, Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, and the broader coordinated terror campaign against the entire Left in Latin America through Operation Condor from 1975. Chávez knew this history. Maduro does as well. For a country with strategic resources, nothing is clearer than the need to defend sovereignty (a lesson that is well known across the Global South).
With this criminal operation (one that violates all the norms of what remains of so-called “international law”) the United States faces a crisis of legitimacy, even among its own allies. The face of imperialism is laid bare: the assertion of dominance over all others, in any hemisphere. Propelled by an overwhelming military force and the capacity to strike anywhere in the world, imperialism today goes beyond the Monroe Doctrine. Donald Trump and his ilk want everything and want to lose nothing. Here lies his fragility.
Trump has been forced to confront the absolute failure of the Venezuelan Right. He has withdrawn the fictitiousness of their right to rule and instead has had to accept the continuity of the Chavista leadership. Just as they failed to impose Juan Guaidó, they have now failed with Maria Corina Machado. To place either of them in the Miraflores presidential palace, the US troops would have had to climb the hills around the city and fight street by street against the resistance of a population unified by its hatred of a return to the oligarchy.
Faced with such US aggression, one cannot believe in a path of diplomacy necessarily based on the recognition of sovereign and equal states. The United States interprets the willingness to dialogue of our nations as signs of weakness and pounces like a starving beast. We must never forget this. Nor should we forget that they lie.
The battlefield has a military component, in which the United States have carried out a mission successfully. But it has other components (economic, political, ethical, symbolic fronts) that are contested. The protagonist of these dimensions is the Venezuelan people, mobilizing their memory, their recent history, their dignity, their victories, and their protagonism. The people mobilized under Chávez’s enduring gaze.
The role of Cuba
For Cuba, blockaded for more than 60 years and accused by the same empire of being a state sponsor of terrorism and a failed state, there is no other path than to deepen anti-imperialism.
The ties between Cuba and Venezuela were born from the admiration José Martí (1853-1895) had for Simón Bolívar (1783-1830) — that traveler who wept before the statue of the Liberator. These ties were nourished by the love between Chávez and Fidel a century later. These are not mere commercial ties forged out of the need to survive amid a blockade, though sovereign cooperation would be entirely legitimate. They are bonds of fraternity, ties between siblings in the pursuit of a socialist path, nourished by faces of the people, by thousands of Cuban professionals who have served in Venezuela, and by stories of affection, loyalty, and sacrifice born over decades.
Our countries have sustained economic relations based on trust and mutual commitment, on the exchange of oil for medical and educational services, on compensated trade relations with preferential agreements. These exchanges have diminished in recent years due to unilateral sanctions and the tightening of the blockade. A naval blockade on Venezuelan oil could mean new difficulties for that exchange, but what Cubans are talking about these days is not national economic interests, but imperialism, revolution, internationalism, commitment — words we must bring into our lives as a compass for everyday practice.
The Left is living through a moment of definition and must take its rightful place in history at this hour. We have failed to advance regional integration. We have failed to strengthen regional sovereignty by pooling our resources and strengths. We have failed to deepen our understanding of one another’s struggles and the differences in our national realities. And in the face of this, there has always been an empire (today more voracious and soulless, but the same as ever).
Cubans condemn the US military aggression against Venezuela and the threats against the countries of the region, and we firmly condemn the kidnapping of Maduro and Flores and demand their release. In defending the Proclamation approved at the II CELAC Summit that recognizes our region as a Zone of Peace, we defend peace with sincerity. Our anger today does not translate into hatred, but carries the history of the victory over mercenary troops at Girón, the October Crisis, resistance to acts of state terrorism and to a blockade that was already 40 years old when formal fraternal relations with Venezuela began.
Today, the Cuban people mourn 32 sons of a country that only wants to work to live better along the path it has chosen. They are so aware that no people can confront the threats now being launched against Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, and Greenland alone. Only united can we stop a powerful fascist who has no morality or ethics other than dispossession and unpunished criminality, who feels entitled to every part of the world that interests them and endowed with the right and the power to destroy the part of the world they can do without.
Llanisca Lugo González is a member of the No Cold War Collective, is a researcher and the Antonio Gramsci Chair at the Instituto Juan Marinello, Havana, Cuba. She is a Deputy in the National Assembly of Cuba.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
