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- [00:00]
Donald Trump
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Marco Rubio
Guaranteed Human support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It's it screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member finra, SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this.
- [01:14]
Steve Guerrier
Is America's Voice Live and welcome to America's Voice Live. I'm Steve Guru, the pulse of the people.
- [01:20]
Darren Woods
We need somebody that's going to hear.
- [01:22]
Doug Burgum
The people's voice, the truth the mainstream won't touch.
- [01:26]
Steve Guerrier
This guy is by definition a globalist.
- [01:28]
Doug Burgum
And the stories that matter, Rav's own Ben Berklam right up over this hill cartel.
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Donald Trump
I see him. I see him. I see him.
- [01:38]
Mark Nelson
Live.
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Steve Guerrier
Breaking news right now here on Real America's Voice filtered.
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Doug Burgum
These people are domestic terrorists and unapologetic.
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Steve Guerrier
We're here to take a stand for God and country.
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Donald Trump
Let's feel good.
- [01:48]
Steve Guerrier
America's Voice Live starts now. Welcome to America's Voice Live. I'm Steve Guerrier. It is Friday the 9th of January, the year of our Lord 2026. A lot going on today, like every day. We're going to get right to it. We're awaiting President Trump. We've got a live feed. He's going to be coming in to meet with oil executives at any moment here. The moment it does, we're going to go right to the President. Look, we're looking at oil prices that are below $60 a barrel. Gasoline down again today. The national average, $2.80. What is it in your state? It's cheap out there when it comes to energy. And of course, everything that's happened in Venezuela in the last handful of days means that there will be more oil coming to the United States, its final destination, still to be determined. And how Venezuela and the United States line up in this oil is still to be determined. That's why the oil executive is here. Look, the fact of the matter is energy is key to America's success and future. Vast quantity of cheap energy have also and always run this country. So we'll keep an eye on the energy secretary, the president, and so much more. We're also waiting for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to speak from Los Angeles today. Very busy afternoon. Before we get to all of that, though, earlier today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett was speaking in Minnesota, going over initiatives to combat the rampant fraud in that saved billions of dollars, as we've heard. We're going to play you a bit of that right now while we wait for the president. Here it is.
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Scott Bessett
I want to thank you all for joining me today. President Trump has instructed the entire administration to use our full resources to ensure we hold accountable these perpetrators who have stolen billions from Minnesotans. I appreciate Speaker. Excuse me, demuth, State Representative Kristen Robbins and the Minnesota State House members for their years of work fighting fraud. At treasury, we are thoroughly investigating the egregious fraud, including funds allegedly sent to Somalia through money service businesses which provide financial services outside a formal bank and could have potentially been diverted to the terrorist organization Al Shabaab. Under Democratic Governor Tim Waltz, welfare fraud has spiraled out of control. Out of control. We've heard troubling accounts that billions of dollars intended for hungry kids, housing for disabled people and seniors, and services for children with special needs were diverted to benefit Somali fraudsters. Treasury's financial crimes enforcement Network, known as FinCEN and IRS, are leading our investigation to examine whether financial institutions have have complied with their legal obligations under the Bank Secrecy act and Treasury's regulations. These requirements are designed to detect money laundering and other illicit activity countering the financing of terrorism and safeguard the US Financial system. Since the earliest days of these investigations, treasury has been working with the DOJ and the U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota. We have traced where the money from the perpetrators went and are investigating whether any of the money ended up in the hands of terrorists. Treasury is here today because this is what we do. We follow the money. Earlier this morning, I met with financial institutions and made clear we must do more to safeguard our nation and protect our financial system from waste, fraud and abuse. I also provided updates on our investigation and announced several powerful new initiatives the treasury will be undertaking to increase transparency and crack down on fraud in Minnesota. First off, we have followed the money and identified the money services business businesses, MSBs that have transferred taxpayer funds overseas. Our team at FinCEN has just provided formal notification to these businesses that they are under federal investigation. These businesses had an obligation to comply with anti money laundering laws and they will be held accountable.
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Steve Guerrier
And as I mentioned, the President holding a meeting today with oil executives. Also in the room, J.D. vance, Susie Wiles, Doug Burgum, the Interior Secretary, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, Chris Wright, the Energy Secretary, a high level meeting to discuss American energy and where we go from here. The President will be sitting down here momentarily. We expect some comments from him. Here he is.
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Donald Trump
Well, it's a great honor to be with among the biggest companies in the world by far, I would say. And we're doing tremendous things. Our country is doing very well. You saw the numbers that got released today, yesterday. Deficits cut way, way, way back at levels that nobody has ever seen before, setting records. And the numbers coming into our country are unprecedented and we're doing really well. We had a situation three days ago with Venezuela and we're getting along extremely well with the people of Venezuela, both the people and the people that are running Venezuela. I just want to thank our military. What they've done is incredible. That was considered unprecedented. To go into a military fort with thousands of soldiers and others and to come in with 152 planes going every which way and very rapid speeds and helicopters and to come out with no deaths and the loss of no equipment, it was pretty amazing. Nobody has seen anything like it. I was called by the leaders of numerous countries. I won't go into which ones, but the biggest and the strongest. And they said that was very impressive. They were all impressed. But today I'm delighted to welcome almost two dozen of the biggest and most respected oil and gas executives in the world to the White House. It's an honor to be with them. We have many others that were not able to get in. I said if we had a ballroom, we'd have over a thousand people. Everybody wanted. I never knew your industry was that big. I never knew you had that many people in your industry. But here we are. And if you fact, if you look, come to think of it, wow. I got to look at this myself.
- [08:53]
Steve Guerrier
Wow.
- [08:56]
Donald Trump
What a view. This is the door to the bar. What a job. Unusual time to look, but I figured we might as well. If the fake news would like to go back and take a look, you can but you'll see a very big foundation that's moving. We're ahead of schedule in the ballroom and under budget. It's going to be, I don't think there'll be anything like it in the world, actually. I think it will be the best we want from this is, as you know, our biggest room, which would seat 100 for dinner maybe, if you're lucky, if you're nice and tight. And the ballroom will seat many and it will also take care of the inauguration with bulletproof glass, drone proof ceilings and everything else, unfortunately, that today you need. So we're going to discuss how these great American companies can help rapidly rebuild Venezuela's dilapidated oil industry and bring millions of barrels of oil production to benefit the United States, the people of Venezuela and the entire world. And yesterday the number is 30 million barrels. I can't even. Is that a correct number? 30 million barrels. Do you hear that, Peter? Of oil was given to us by Venezuela. That's a lot of oil. It's about $4 billion worth. And it's on our way to, it's on its way to the United States right now. And we want to thank Venezuela for that. And we're working very well with them, obviously, or they wouldn't have been so generous. But they respect us. Again, they didn't respect us at all before. So that's money that goes to the United States, some will go to Venezuela and some will go to the oil companies, but not that because that's already been extracted. So when you're not getting any of that, but when you start extracting, you'll get what it's tremendous reserves, among the biggest in the world. Some people say it is the biggest in the world. And we're going to be working with Venezuela. We're going to be making the decision as to which oil companies are going to go in that we're going to allow to go in, going to cut a deal with the companies. We'll probably do that today or very shortly thereafter with Chris and Doug. And we're dealing with the country, so we're empowered to make that deal. And you have total safety, total security. One of the reasons you couldn't go in is you had no guarantees, you had no security, but now you have total security. It's a whole different Venezuela. And Venezuela is going to be very successful and the people of the United States are going to be big beneficiaries because we're going to be extracting, you know, numbers of, in terms of oil. Like, you know, few people have ever Seen, actually. So you're dealing with us directly. You're not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don't want you to deal with Venezuela. Let me thank Vice President J.D. vance, who's doing a fantastic job. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, likewise. A fantastic job. I have good people. I like them better than my first group. But we had a great. Despite that, we had a great first term. We had some great people there too, by the way. But we had a great. A great first term. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country in the first term. But this is blowing it away, and you haven't seen anything yet. Everyone has been shocked by the numbers, 5.4% GDP. And that's despite the fact that we were badly hurt by the Democrat shutdown, of which they'd like to see if they could shut it down again. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who's fantastic. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, recommended by Doug as being the greatest oil man anywhere in the world. Because I wanted Doug for that job. Energy. And Doug said, no, sir, there's a man named Chris Wright. I said, who the hell is Chris Wright? He said, he's the most talented oil man anywhere in the world. I doubt you can get him because typically oil men make a lot of money, and women, they make a lot of money. But Chris came. You took one of the greatest salary cuts probably in history, Chris. But he's a fantastic person, loves our country and many other important members of this team. And I want to thank them for their efforts. As you know, last week the United States Armed forces performed one of the most spectacular military operations in American history, apprehending the outlaw dictator Nicolas Maduro for his crimes against the United States, crimes for which he has now been indicted in federal court awaiting trial. And he killed many people, millions of people, actually, and allowed jails, prisons, mental institutions, insane asylums, drug dealers, drug addicts to pour into our country totally unchecked because of sleepy Joe Biden's policy of open borders. The stupidest thing I've ever seen. We're getting them all out. The departure of Maduro makes it possible, an incredible future for both nations, Venezuela and the United States, in which we will more closely integrate the economies of two major energy powers in the Western Hemisphere. Energy coming out of Venezuela was very small. One of the things the United States gets out of this will be even lower energy prices. We have people now Getting gasoline for $1.99, $1.96, $1.95, $1.92. Yesterday somebody, and it used to be 3.5 dollars, $4, $5 a gallon. Think of that. $1.99. Decades ago, the United States built Venezuela's oil industry, a tremendous expense with American skill, technology, know how, and dollars. But those assets were stolen from us. And we had presidents did nothing about it. This president is much different than your other presidents. They did nothing about it. They stole us. Some of the people in this room were a little bit younger when that happened, but not that much younger. It wasn't that long ago, but they stole our assets like we were babies. And the United States said absolutely nothing about it. So now we're doing everything about it. Now we're doing 500% about it. But it's a long time after the act took place. So they stole from us. And it was taken by socialists and communists at the time. And Venezuela was going bad, really bad. And as much oil as they have, they're producing almost nothing. Almost nothing, which is just a system. So we're really, if you look at it, we're taking back what was taken from us. They took our oil industry. We built that entire oil industry, started a long time ago, but they took it. And they. They were very ungracious to this country, but now they're being very nice. American companies will have the opportunity to rebuild Venezuela's rotting energy infrastructure and eventually increase oil production to levels never end ever seen before. When you add Venezuela and the United States together, we have 55% of the oil in the world. The United States is number one. We have them drilling. Drill, baby, drill was my campaign. And Doug and Chris, I think we're setting records on drilling right now and taking oil without Venezuela. That's how we're getting the oil prices down. The plan is for them to spend, meaning our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100 billion of their money, not the government's money. They don't need government money, but they need government protection and need government security that when they spend all this money, it's going to be there. So they get their money back and make a very nice return. The plan is for them to spend at least $100 billion to rebuild the capacity and the infrastructure necessary. Venezuela has also agreed that the United States will immediately begin refining and selling up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil, which will continue indefinitely. We're all set to do it. We have the refining capacity. It was actually based very much on the Venezuelan oil, which is a heavy oil, very good oil, great oil. It's fantastic for certain things. Like asphalt roads, the best there is in the world for asphalt roads and other things. All of the companies here today are going to be treasured partners in bringing the nation of Venezuela back to life, restoring its economy and generating great wealth for their companies and for their people. And also great wealth for the American people and tremendous wealth for the companies that are going in. The companies that are going in. And if you don't want to go in, just let me know, because I got 25 people that aren't here today that are willing to take your place. So I just want to thank. These are people that I either know or I know of by reading lots of business magazines and journals and papers. These are the greatest oil people anywhere in the world. Harold Ham, I see is here. Harold. You know, there's a story about Harold Ham that he can look at a piece of land, put a straw into the land, and oil pours out. Is that true about you? Whereas some of you guys have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to find that oil. So we can't let that story be true. But they say Harold puts a straw into the land and oil comes gushing out. So you're not a big R and D person, are you? Huh? He's. He's called. He's called instinct for oil. Now, he's got other problems, but we won't talk about those problems. But he's been a great supporter of mine for a long time, haven't you, Harold? So congratulations. But we have, and I think Harold would agree, we have the greatest oil men and women anywhere in the world sitting in this room right now. And we have a lot of people that will be back to see us sometime next week. We're going to have another meeting for another group, but we're going to do this very quickly. We can have this done almost immediately. So I'd like to thank you all for being here. I'd like to invite Vice President Vance to say a few words, followed by Secretaries Rubio, Bergam and Wright. And then we'll have a few words from representatives that are here and to discuss their ideas. A couple of them. We have Chevron, which has been. Where's Chevron? Where are you?
- [19:53]
Marco Rubio
Far right.
- [19:54]
Donald Trump
No, I thought you'd have a better location. You were the only one that was there for all that. I used to call you and say, what the hell is going on with Venezuela? He stuck it out. I don't know if you made money or not, but you stuck it out. They got to give you a lot of credit for that. Mark Nelson, thank you very much. Exxon CEO Darren Woods. Darren, thank you very much. How's Exxon doing? Okay. They'll do a lot better now, won't they?
- [20:18]
Harold Ham
Huh?
- [20:20]
Donald Trump
Exxon has been amazing. It's been an amazing company. And ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance, thank you very much. So you guys could say something and then we'll take some questions from the press and if anybody else would like to speak, we'll have you speak. We have all the time in the world. This is a big subject. This is massive wealth. And more importantly than massive wealth, it leads to lower taxes and a lot of jobs for, for Americans and for Venezuelans, but for Americans in this case. And I just again, appreciate you all being here and I'd like to ask JD to say a few words, please. Thank you.
- [20:59]
Mark Nelson
Thank you, Mr. President. And thanks to everybody for being here. You know, as a Marine Corps veteran, for my entire lifetime, presidents, and let's be honest, they were Democrats and Republicans, would send the American military to far off places. They would get us involved in, in these endless quagmires, they would lose hundreds or thousands of American lives. And the American people would get nothing out of these misadventures. And now you have an American president who has empowered the American military to stop the flow of drugs into our country and to ensure that we, as opposed to our adversaries, control one of the great energy reserves that exist anywhere in the entire world. And he did it without losing a single American life in the process. It was an amazing operation. It's going to make our country richer. It's going to make our country more powerful. It's going to make our country safer. And it's going to lead to the decline, the further decline of drug overdose deaths in the United States of America. An amazing thing. And I'm happy to be here to talk about how we can make it an even bigger and better operation for the American people. Thank you, sir.
- [21:58]
Donald Trump
Thank you very much, Marco.
- [22:01]
Peter Hegseth
Thank you, Mr. President. And I think this is a reminder that everything this President does, everything President Trump does, is with the American people in mind. It was not in the national interest or national security of the United States and of our people to have in our own hemisphere a country not just with vast energy reserves, but controlled by an indicted narco trafficker who flooded our country with illegal immigration, including drug gang members, flooded our openly cooperated with drug gangs, and by the way, opened up, stole the wealth of that country to fund a repressive regime and also benefit adversaries such as Iran, all of that is now changing as part of this process. The first phase, of course, is the phase we're in now, which is a stabilization phase. We did not want to see destabilization in the country. We're working very cooperatively with the interim authorities there to provide a market for the sale of the wealth of Venezuela in such a way that benefits the people, both of the United States, but also the people of Venezuela. And as a reminder to everyone, the President announced this just two days ago. Every penny, everything they buy with the money that they're making from the oil now, Mr. President, will be bought from America, and that includes everything from equipment for the oil industry to food to medicine and everything in between. The second will be a phase of recovery, and some of these phases will interlap, and that is to have a normal economy again, where the money goes to the benefit of people, not the benefit of our adversaries or the benefit of elements of. In that country and around the world that are against our interests at the same time as a process of reconciliation has to happen internally among the different sectors of society and politics and the like. And finally, the third phase, which is the most important of the three, is when the country fully transitions into a normal country that we have strong economic and diplomatic and relations with, that is friendly towards the United States. That's not a foothold for our adversaries that serves our interests, but also the interests of the people. It will be a country that is wealthy, a country that is prosperous for the people, not for a handful of criminals, but also a country that is supportive of our interests in the region and throughout the world. And we thank you, Mr. President, and the team you've assembled that have brought us to this point. A lot of work remains important work, but this is historic.
- [24:07]
Donald Trump
Okay. Thank you very much, Doug.
- [24:11]
Doug Burgum
Well, Mr. President, I want to thank you for your leadership, not just as president, but as commander in chief. The boldness, the execution, the breathtakingly precise work that you've delivered both in Iran back in June and here has changed the. Changed the field for the whole world. And you always ran about the idea of peace and prosperity. And in Venezuela, as you know, this was a playground for every bad actor in the world. We had Russians, Iran, terror groups, all of them profiting from this criminal organization that was pretending to run the country that makes America safer. You've secured the border. We're stopping the flow of drugs. And now with the normalization of relationships on an economic basis, it's going to mean tremendously for the prosperity of the American people. So I just want to say again, congratulations to you and to the entire leadership team. It's been an amazing, historic week on the scale of things that we haven't seen perhaps for 125 years, in terms of the US exerting its influence over Latin America in a way that's going to make a change for generations. And on behalf of all the oil executives that are here today, Chris, and I want to say thank you to all of you. It's your technology, your innovation that has put America in the place where today we are the most energy dominant country in the world. And that is that position is what's allowed us to take the action that we're taking with statecraft, with military action. None of that would happen if we were dependent on everybody else for energy. So you're a big part of the reason that we're able to move the way we are today. And we're grateful that you're here to be part of the solution going forward.
- [25:49]
Donald Trump
Thank you, Doug. And you are doing a fantastic job. And we appreciate it. Everybody appreciates it. They know who's doing well. Chris Wright.
- [25:59]
Marco Rubio
Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah. What we've seen in the last week is leadership matters and credibility matters. Venezuelan oil has been sanctioned for many years, and the oil just flew. You know, those sanctions were not enforced. That oil just floated out to get trafficked by bad actors of the world, that resources weren't gone to a central place. The corruption and decline of Venezuela has been a crisis for the people of Venezuela. And as Secretary Rubio said, massive spillover effects in the United States in crime and drugs and kidnappings, and in taking a huge resource base and making it not exploited, not developed. The whole world is a poorer, less opportunity, rich place because of that. When you have materials underground, they've been underground for a million years, that does not make them a resource. That does not make them valuable for your country, your people or the world. They only become a resource with technology, with capital, with rule of law, and a system of governance that encourages the harvesting of those resources to make the better world. And we see here the dramatic contrast between the United States, which may have less oil underground than Venezuela. We have 20 times the production of Venezuela, 20 times times the impact of human betterment, massively better quality of living here in the United States that was at risk under the last administration. We've seen a lot of attacks on the energy that makes the world go round. President Trump's election has removed those risks, has embraced reality about how the world is energized and we are at record production of oil in the United States, record production in natural gas in the United States. We've seen a meaningful decline in gasoline price prices, diesel prices, travel prices because of jet fuel. And now President Trump is taking the genius of a different way to try to solve a 25 year festering problem in Venezuela that all the traditional things have not worked. But ordering both a tremendous military operation to remove the heads of a criminal organization masquerading as a government and then to use the power power of our military, not to fire bullets, but to stop the flow of Venezuelan oil to the world immediately gave us leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela and has allowed us to be in this position today where the actions of this government can massively improve Venezuela for the better. And the bigger impact is to massively improve the quality of life, affordability, safety and security of the United States. Very proud to be here.
- [28:40]
Donald Trump
And I.
- [28:43]
Marco Rubio
Will turn it over to Mark Nelson, who's the vice chairman of Chevron. Chevron has been in Venezuela for over 100 years continuously. Mike Wirth, the CEO, had a knee replacement recently. He's not here. Mark is a tremendous leader in our industry and I'll turn it over to him.
- [29:03]
Mark Nelson
Thank you, Secretary Wright. Again, I'll send Mike Wirtz regrets. He really wanted to be here. Mr. President, on his behalf, I have three very quick thank yous and an assurance I'd like to provide you all. The First thank you, Mr. President, is to you. It's thank you for convening this gathering. It's thank you for your leadership and thank you, thank you for continuing to keep American energy domination in the forefront. So thank you. Thank you for that.
- [29:33]
Donald Trump
Thank you very much.
- [29:34]
Mark Nelson
The second thank you actually is to the cabinet. So, Secretary Rubio, Secretary Bergam, Secretary Wright, your ability and commitment to continue to engage with the parties around the table to keep the world working is greatly appreciated. So thank you. Thank you for that. And the final thank you actually would go to our Venezuelan employees of Chevron. They have been working tirelessly to operate safely, protect the environment in country, and their dedication and skill will help us in this next chapter. And finally, I'll close with the assurance. For more than a century, Chervon has been a part of Venezuela's past past. We are certainly committed to its present. And we very much look forward as a proud American company to help it build a better Future. And so, Mr. President, thank you for your leadership.
- [30:30]
Donald Trump
You really suffered there. You, you stuck it out. A lot of people left A lot of big companies left. Some of the people, many of the people sitting at this table left because of the safety risk and other risks. But you really, you stuck it out. I give you credit for that. Sometimes it was hard. I remember six months ago I told you to stay, just stay. Things are going to happen, you'll be very happy. I didn't know they were going to happen this fast or this conclusively. One thing I think everyone has to know is that if we didn't do this, China or Russia would have done it. And if China or Russia were a next door neighbor, because essentially this is not around the other parts of the world. So far away where you fly an airplane for 24 hours before you get there. This is sort of a next door neighbor if you think about it. And I told China and I told Russia, we get along with you very well, we like you very much. We don't want you there. Not going to be there. And if we didn't do this, China would have been there and Russia would have been there. Maybe they both would have been there together, but they're not going to be there. Now one thing I will tell them and I will tell you that we are open for business. China can buy all the oil they want from us there or in the United States, Russia can get all the oil they need from us and they do like oil, even though they produce a lot of it. But China and Russia and everybody else is able to go and we'll be open for business almost immediately. I have a feeling the $100 million will be spent on very, very. 100 billion will be spent very, very rapidly by these very big, powerful and rich companies. And I think they're going to be able to rebuild the infrastructure. And I hope it's going to be brand new as opposed to rehab. Because I know the tremendous difference between the new and the not so new. In your industry, the new is much more beautiful, much better in every way and actually much smaller. It's like everything else gets smaller and stronger. It's a combination of smaller, better and stronger. So I hope you're going to build all brand new stuff, rip out the old crap that's been there for so many years and do it the right way. You're going to be there a long time. If we make a deal. If we make a deal, you're going to be there a long time. If we don't make a deal, you won't be there at all. It's, you know, sort of interesting. But again, China and Russia would have been there if we didn't do this. And the other thing people ask about, the second wave, I don't think it's going to be necessary. We have an armada, a giant armada like nobody has ever seen in that part of the world, and it's stationed off the coast. And we are getting along so well with the people that are involved and representing Venezuela that I don't think we're going to have any. I don't think it's going to be necessary to do the second wave. We were planning on a second wave, but the first wave was so powerful and so good and so strong. And frankly, the people in the country, they really. They did the right thing. They were smart. They did the right thing. They didn't want to go through a second wave. But we've got a tremendous number of the most powerful ships in the world right there. I don't think we're going to have to use that. I'm happy to say that I don't think we're going to have to use that at all. If I could ask. Chevron, you did a great job. I want to thank you. And Exxon Mobil, if you would say a few words, and. And then followed by Conoco. Great companies, massive companies. Great companies. Exxon, please.
- [33:59]
Scott Bessett
Sure.
- [33:59]
Darren Woods
Thank you. Mr. President, I appreciate the invitation and the opportunity, frankly, for the entire industry to show up and provide a perspective. Frankly, we've been kind of unresponsive to the press regarding Venezuela, but I guess today's the opportunity to address the press directly with respect to a number of questions that have been asked of ExxonMobil. First and foremost, obviously, is the interest that we have in Venezuela. And I think, you know, the way I would position that. I think one of the reasons why we see many of the industry players here is we're in a depletion business for a product that is in great demand and will be in demand for many, many, many decades to come. And as a depletion business, the biggest challenge we have is finding resources. There's an opportunity in Venezuela with all the resources there is. We don't have that challenge of finding. We have the challenge of developing those resources. So I think it's on. It's in the best interest of these companies and, frankly, society as a whole, for the industry to be interested in understanding what the opportunity here represents. I'll just share a philosophy that ExxonMobil has when we enter countries, because we do business all around the world in a number of different regimes. We take a very Long term perspective, the investments that we make Spanish decades and decades. So we do not go into any opportunity with a short mindset, short term mindset. There's a value proposition that we have to meet. It has to be a win, win, win proposition. Obviously it has to be a win for the company and our shareholders to generate a return for the investments that we make. Has to be a win for the government. The resources are an important source of revenue that help support the people, people of the places that we do business. And it has to be a win for the people. We have to be wanted there and to be a good neighbor. And those three things ensure a stable long term platform for the large investments that we make for the long term. With respect to Venezuela in particular, we have a very long history in Venezuela. In fact, we first got into Venezuela back in 1940s. We had our assets seized there twice. And so you can imagine to re enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we've historically seen here and what is currently the state. If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela today, it's uninvestable. And so significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system. There has to be durable investment protections and there has to be a change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country. We're confident that with this administration and President Trump working hand in hand with the Venezuelan government that those changes can be put in place. And with respect to the Venezuelan government, that perspective we don't have a view on. We haven't talked to the Venezuelan government and obviously we have yet to assess the people's perspective with respect to ExxonMobil entering the country. In the short term, there are things that can be done while these longer term issues are being worked for us. We haven't been in the country for almost 20 years. We think it's absolutely critical in the short term that we get a technical team in place to assess the current state of the industry and the assets to understand what would be involved, to help the people of Venezuela get production back on the market. With the invitation of the Venezuelan government and with appropriate security guarantees, we are ready to put a team on the ground there. We also have a integrated set of capabilities from production to refining to trading. And I think we can be of assistance to getting the Venezuelan crude to market and realizing a market price to help again with the financial situation in Venezuela. So those are my short term perspective that I have. I'd say maybe close With A thank you, Mr. President, for the work that you've done to secure not only the national security but the energy security of the region. And then thank you Secretary Rubio, Secretary Wright, Secretary Burgum, for your leadership in this matter. Thank you.
- [38:05]
Donald Trump
How long would it take you, Darren, as Exxon to. If we make a deal. And if we make a deal, how long would it take you to get in there and get started?
- [38:15]
Darren Woods
Well, we, the first step, this technical team, we as I talked with Secretary Wright earlier this week, we started from the beginning to put the team together so that if and when it was needed we could hit the ground almost immediately. So we can, we can hit the ground and within the next couple of weeks start the assessment and then from.
- [38:33]
Donald Trump
There we need to understand that's what we want. We want speed, speed and quality. That's what we want. Thank you Darren and Conoco ryan.
- [38:41]
Ryan Lance
Thank you Mr. President. Appreciate the opportunity to be here too. And you've assembled a great team and our congratulations as well for removing one of the terrible people in the world and bringing them to justice. It was quite amazing. I think you've given hope to the people of Venezuela again, which I think is quite remarkable. And we've been on the other end of that despot regime a long time. Our assets were expropriated. I had a little bit more hair when that happened. And you know, I think we're the largest non sovereign credit holder in Venezuela today. So we're in a bit of different situation. But I think your big and bold idea to use energy commerce instead of conflict is something that could make a real big difference in Venezuela. And we stand, our company certainly stands ready to help in that endeavor, encourage you to continue to think bigger and even bolder. And we've had some discussions with your energy team about that as well as we think about the other people that need to be in this room and in this discussion or the banks and including probably the Ex IM bank as we think about how the debt needs to be restructured in the financing to deliver the billions of dollars that are required to restore their energy infrastructure. And I think as we think that big and bold, we need to be also thinking about even restructuring the entire Venezuelan energy system, including Petavasa. And I think if we can do that and think bold, there's an opportunity to be quick, fast and restore the quality of what's happening happened in Venezuela or what's been lost in Venezuela over the course of the last 25 years. So thank you for this opportunity.
- [40:25]
Donald Trump
Well, thank you very Much. And you'll get a lot of your money back. We're going to start with an even plate, though. We're not going to look at what people lost in the past because that was their fault. That was a different president. We're going to. We're going to. You're going to make a lot of money, but we're not going to go back. You left a lot of money behind, I guess. What number?
- [40:43]
Ryan Lance
12 billion.
- [40:44]
Donald Trump
How much?
- [40:45]
Ryan Lance
12 billion.
- [40:46]
Donald Trump
Well, it's a good write off.
- [40:50]
Ryan Lance
It's already been written off.
- [40:51]
Donald Trump
It's been written off. All right. Thank you. You'll make it back one way or the other. You're all going to do very well, I think. Really very well. Marco just gave me a note. Go back to Chevron. They want to discuss something. Go ahead. I'm going back to Chevron. Thank you, Marco.
- [41:10]
Mark Nelson
Is there a question, Mr. President?
- [41:11]
Donald Trump
Yes, go ahead, Marco. What was. What are you seeing here, Mark?
- [41:15]
Marco Rubio
If, Mark, you can update us on operations in the ground and with the appropriate approvals, what you might be able to achieve in the next 12 to 18 months. Give us a little view from the ground.
- [41:26]
Mark Nelson
You bet. You bet. So Today, Chevron has 3,000 employees in four different joint ventures in Venezuela today. And over the past five to seven years, they've taken production from about 40,000 barrels a day to 240,000 barrels a day. Essentially, getting those facilities and that equipment up to standards. That would be something that people in the room would be more accustomed to, given the work we've done with Secretary Wright and Secretary Bergam and even Secretary Besant. I think we have a path forward here very shortly to be able to increase our liftings from those joint ventures 100%, essentially, effective immediately. We are also able to increase our production within our own disciplined investment schemes by about 50% just in the next 18 to 24 months. And that's just leveraging what's on the ground. So, to Secretary Rubio's comments about phase one, this is taking the momentum of improvements we've already made there locally and building on those and creating more momentum for the people of Venezuela.
- [42:30]
Donald Trump
Do you think you have an advantage being there? You know, you've been there by the skin of your teeth. It's been tough for you to be there. But do you think you have an advantage over the other people in this room by the fact that you are there?
- [42:41]
Mark Nelson
Yeah, I think there are, Mr. President. I think there would be days where it didn't feel like an advantage, and there are days where it does feel like an advantage. But having people on the ground today that care desperately about the people of Venezuela and know how to operate the assets that are there is a definite advantage today.
- [42:54]
Donald Trump
Would you say the best locations are available or would you say the best locations are already sort of worked, even though they're in very bad shape? The best locations for finding oil. The best locations for oil.
- [43:10]
Mark Nelson
There are more, more opportunities than not, Mr. President. With 300 billion barrels of reserves and resources in country, there are lots of opportunities for many companies.
- [43:19]
Donald Trump
Will you be building new or you'll be using the old infrastructure that you.
- [43:23]
Mark Nelson
Have yet today it's a, it's a little bit of a mix. But today it's mostly us taking the equipment of today, getting it to the standards that we are accustomed to. To your comments about making it how it should be today, most of the investments that we've been making are about getting it up to our standards.
- [43:38]
Donald Trump
Well, I think you're going to make an investment, but you're going to get your money back very quickly. And that's part of our thing. We're going to have you get your money back fast and then you'll give a lot to Venezuela and to the United States after that. Okay? So you'll be, you'll be in good shape. Could I ask Carol Tam to say a few words? He's been a friend of mine for a long time. Very amazing man, actually. Amazing energy person.
- [44:00]
Harold Ham
Well, thank you, Mr. President. It's good to be here with so many dignified people and this effort particularly. And thank you for your effort for what you've done here, taking this despot out of that area and the world dealt with him way too long. Certainly our industry knows that this is a real jewel that can be developed for the, for the people, for the people of Venezuela and also benefit the world. And like Secretary Wright said, it has not been done. That's not been done in the past. And they had a good chance at it. Brought someone in that totally took it down, as everybody knows here, and that was Chavez and we know what happened to him finally. But, you know, that ruined the industry in Venezuela and all of us know how that happened ended very well, very, very wrongly. So anyway, we're glad to see what's happened here and look forward for the opportunity for a lot of people in this room, but also for America and the country itself.
- [45:20]
Donald Trump
Are you going to be involved in going in? Because, you know, he's in North Dakota and he's in Oklahoma and some incredible places is a little bit different, but but there's no doubt about, you won't have to worry about this truck too much here. You can just, just go at it. Are you going to be one of the participants?
- [45:39]
Harold Ham
Well, certainly, you know, I'm an oil finder like you said. You know, Barry Spitzer, you know, told that story, the coach, and he's kind of exaggerated a little bit. It doesn't come out that quite that easily usually. But anyway, great story. I love it. But I love Barry.
- [45:58]
Donald Trump
Barry's the one that told me this.
- [45:59]
Harold Ham
Yeah, he's a champion, you know, and in a lot of ways, so love that story. Certainly it excites me as an explorationist. You know, everybody has that in their blood and you know, it is a very exciting country and a lot of reserves and so it's got its challenges and the industry knows how to, how to handle that. And like Darren said, you know, you go into your eyes open and do the best you can with the team you got.
- [46:36]
Donald Trump
So you're going to have something that they never had really here is tremendous security. You're going to be very secure, very safe, physically safe, in addition to financially safe. So it's good to see you, Harold. Thank you very much. Much. Does anybody have anything to say before we get to the press? What does Cuba have to do to avoid the same fate as what does Cuba have to do? Well, Cuba is in bad shape. Cuba relied on Venezuela for oil and for money and nobody really knows what's going to happen with Cuba. They're doing very poorly. They're really third World all the way. And we have a lot of great Cuban Americans. And I would say Marco fits very solidly into that category. And I might ask you to say a few words about. We were discussing it before. Cuba is a very different. They don't have energy, they don't have oil, but they would live off of the oil from Venezuela. And they, what they do have is very strong people and very powerful people militarily. And they would protect the people running Venezuela and they would take in a lot of money from Venezuela. Now they don't have that. They won't be taking in any money. So, Marco, what do you think?
- [47:45]
Peter Hegseth
Well, I mean, the fundamental problem in Cuba is that it's run by incompetent people that don't know what an economy looks like, much less a functioning one. They've made a choice and that is they would rather have political control over their people than they would to have an economy that functions. And they've gotten away with it for 60 something years. Because they've had donors, the Soviet Union and now most recently, Venezuela, but that's now gone. So the people in control in Cuba have a choice to make. They can either have a real country with a real economy where they're people can prosper, or they can continue with their failing dictatorship that's going to lead to systemic and societal collapse. That's a very stark and dramatic choice, and it's one we hope to make, the right one. We don't have an interest in a destabilized Cuba, but that would be their fault because they refuse to allow the people of Cuba to have either economic or political freedom, for that matter.
- [48:27]
Donald Trump
And you have, you have, Holly, you have a lot of people in this country that want to go back to Cuba and help Cuba. A lot of people have left, you know, they came in penniless, they didn't have anything, and they've become very rich people in our country, and they want to very much go back and help Cuba. So that's something that Cuba has that a lot of other places don't have. Peter President Trump, thank you. I do want to ask you about Minnesota, but first, just more on topic. President Zelensky said that he was watching with the rest of the world as you made this order to go and capture Nicolas Maduro. And he said if that's how it works with dictators, that the United States knows what to do next. Sounds like he wants you to go and capture Vladimir Putin. Would you ever order a mission to go and capture Vladimir Putin? Well, I don't think it's going to be necessary. I think we're going to have a. We've always, I've always had a great relationship with him. I'm very disappointed. I settled eight wars. I thought this would be in the middle of the pack or maybe one of the easier ones. And I don't know if, you know, Peter, the last month they lost 31,000 people, many of them Russian soldiers. And the Russian economy is doing poorly. I think we're going to end up getting it settled. I wish we could have done it quicker because a lot of people are dying. And mostly soldiers, you know, they get hit in Kiev and they get hit a little bit here and there, and people are dying there, too. But largely it's the soldier population. When you have 30,000, 31,000 soldiers dying in a period of a month, 27,000 the month before, 26,000 the month before that, that's bad stuff. So, as you know, President Biden gave $350 billion to Ukraine to fight and we would never get that back. Although I did make a rare earth deal to get it back. So we will be getting it back, but shouldn't have done that. It was a bad thing to do. I will say that right now because I was able to get NATO to up GDP from 2% to 5%. NATO's got a lot of money and they are paying for everything. We're not losing any money. We're making a lot of money. I guess if you think of it, because we're selling our military equipment, they're probably giving it to Ukraine, but we're selling them to NATO military equipment. We're getting full price and all of that. But that's not a big deal to me. What is a big deal is stopping a war where 30,000 people are being killed every single month.
- [50:49]
Scott Bessett
And on, on Minnesota, the vice President.
- [50:52]
Donald Trump
Yesterday suggested that Renee Goode, who was killed by this ICE officer, was part of a broad left wing network.
- [51:00]
Steve Guerrier
What has your team told you about.
- [51:02]
Donald Trump
This broad left wing network? Who is in charge of it? Who's part of it? What, what's it called? Well, I haven't seen the Vice President's statement, but he's generally very accurate. I hate to say. Look, I watched that yesterday and there are a lot of, a lot of different forms to it, but there was a woman screaming, shame, shame, shame, shame. She was a agitator, probably a paid agitator, but in my opinion she was an agitator, a very high level agitator. So professional. She wouldn't stop screaming. I said, this isn't a normal situation. This is a professional troublemaker. Because you heard it and I had it. Now, I will say this. The news sort of turned her down, turned her off because you're trying to watch. She was so loud and so crazy and just not normal. When somebody sees something like that, they don't go screaming and screaming and the same words. So I guess you could say professional, but I didn't think she did a very good job. You have agitators. And we will always be protecting ice and we're always going to be protecting our border patrol and our law enforcement. Yeah.
- [52:15]
Marco Rubio
Mr. President, in your conversations with these.
- [52:18]
Donald Trump
Oil executives today, did you provide any.
- [52:21]
Marco Rubio
Security guarantees so that they can do their work safely in Venezuela?
- [52:26]
Donald Trump
And separately, Mr. President, they will have those guarantees, yes.
- [52:30]
Doug Burgum
And secondly, Mr. President, I'm curious. In terms of the future of Venezuela.
- [52:34]
Donald Trump
Do you see Venezuela now, led by Delsey Rodriguez Rodriguez, as an ally of the US Is that the way that you view that country well, right now they seem to be an ally and I think it'll continue to be an ally. And we don't want to have Russia there. We don't want to have China there. And by the way, we don't want Russia or China going to Greenland, which if we don't take Greenland, you're going to have Russia or China as your next door neighbor. That's not going to happen. The white. Mr. President, thank you. You just said that these companies would have security guarantees if they go in on the ground in Venezuela. They will have. And what is your plan there actually for these companies and those Americans who are going to be on the ground working for these companies? Well, there are going to be Americans, I assume they're going to be using a lot of Americans, but they're going to be using a lot of people from Venezuela and other places, I would imagine. But I would think that mostly they'll be using Venezuelan workers. Have a lot of great workers. They have a very high unemployment rate and they have workers that are very familiar with taking oil out of the ground. Yeah. How long do you think the ayatollah will be in power after what we've seen play out on the ground there? When is the US Going to get involved now that reports of protesters being killed on the ground so Iran's in big trouble. It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago. We're watching the situation very carefully. I've made the statement very strongly that if they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved. We'll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn't mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts. So we don't want that to happen. There have been cases like this where President Obama totally backed down. But this is something pretty incredible that's happening in Iran. It's an amazing thing to watch. They've done a bad job, they've treated their people very badly and now they're being paid back. So let's see what happens. We're watching it. We're watching it very closely. Go ahead, please. Yes, go ahead. Thank you so much, Mr. President.
- [54:45]
Darren Woods
Do you have any comments in reaction.
- [54:47]
Donald Trump
To the recent attacks by the Syrian.
- [54:48]
Darren Woods
Government alignment with against U. S backed Kurdish forces in Syria which.
- [54:53]
Donald Trump
Killed dozens of civilians and displacing many families? Does your administration bring peace between the Kurds and the Syrian government? I want to see peace. Yes, I do. The Kurds and the Syrian government. We get along with both, as you know very well. They have been natural enemies over the years, but we get along both. And we want to see Syria succeed. And so far I think they are succeeding, but this is just breaking out, and we want to see that stopped. Mr. President. Go ahead, please.
- [55:23]
Marco Rubio
Sir.
- [55:24]
Donald Trump
You're meeting with the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, in a few weeks. Do you hope this meeting with Usau Petro marks a new chapter, a new beginning in the benefit of the Colombian. What country? Colombia. When the president of Colombia had a very good talk with him yesterday, and he's been very hostile to us and to the nation and to me, called me a dictator and lots of other things, called Biden some terrible names, far worse than he called me. But he called yesterday through people, and he wants to meet, and that's fine with me. I've. I've made up with people also, you know, so we're going to have a meeting with him. We had a very good conversation. The people of Colombia are incredible people. Marco would know that better than anybody because he's married to a woman from Colombia. And I don't mean Columbia University. That would be. I'm not sure. I think I like Columbia, the country better, if you want to know the truth. The people. The people are the people. Hold it, hold it, hold it. The people. The people are great people. I look forward to meeting with them. We're going to meet in the very near future. Would you meet the president, interim president of Venezuela, here in the White House? Would you greet her to discuss the fate of the. Yeah, well, I'm going to be. Meet a lot of people and we're going to meet, you know, we meet a lot of people. We've. When you end eight wars, you get to know a lot of people, and I think it's very important. As an example, we have over $18 trillion. Think of it, $18 trillion coming into our country. A lot of that's coming in from foreign countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar and UAE and others. And I get to meet a lot of people. But I will be meeting with various representatives of Venezuela probably pretty soon. We haven't set that up, but the relationship that we have with the people that are currently running Venezuela is very good. We also have a young lady that received the Nobel Peace Prize. She's going to come in and pay her regards to our country, really, to me. But, you know, I'm a representative of the country, nothing else. And she's coming in sometime next week, I think Wednesday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and we'll see how that is. But no, no, we're going to be. We're dealing with the people from Venezuela. We're dealing with them very well. I think they've been very smart in the way they've dealt with us, frankly, because that whole place could have been obliterated with one more strike, and we didn't want to do that. Mr. President, thank you so much. I have a question for you on Minneapolis, but on Venezuela and your meeting with Machado next week. If she gives you her Nobel Peace Prize, will that change your view about her running that country? Well, I have to speak to her. I mean, I'm going to have to speak to her. She might be involved in some aspect of it. I will have to speak to her. I think it's very nice that she wants to come in. And that's what I understand. The reason is because Norway is very embarrassed by what took place. I mean, they're getting decimated. Look, whether people like Trump or don't like trump, I settled eight wars, big ones. Some going on for 36 years, 32 years, 31 years, 28 years, 25 years. Some just getting ready to start, like India and Pakistan, where already eight jets were shot out of the air. And I got it done in rapid order without nuclear weapons. I can't think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel Prize more than me. And I don't want to be bragging, but nobody else settled wars. Obama. Obama got the Nobel Prize. He had no idea why. He still has no idea. He walks around, he says, I got the Nobel Prize. Why did he get a Nobel Prize? He got it almost immediately upon attaining office, and he didn't do anything, and he was a bad president. So, I mean, you should get the Nobel Prize for every war you stopped. These were major wars. These were wars that nobody thought could be stopped. President Putin called me and he said about two of the wars, that he's been trying to stop them for 10 years. He wasn't able to do it. He couldn't believe it. So in theory, you should get the Nobel Prize for every war you stopped. Every one of them was major. But I don't care about that. What I care about is saving lives. I've saved tens of millions of lives. You know, the Prime Minister of Pakistan came here and he made a very public statement. He said that President Trump saved minimum 10 million lives having to do with Pakistan and India. And that was going to be raging. So, you know. But I'm honored that she's coming here. I look forward to meeting her. Yes. And I'm Minneapolis. And I'm Minneapolis and I'm. Go ahead on Minneapolis.
- [59:57]
Marco Rubio
Mr.
- [59:58]
Donald Trump
Prince, I have a follow up for you. The state officials there have said that the FBI is not sharing evidence with them. Typically they would conduct a joint investigation, as you know. Do you believe that the FBI should be sharing evidence with state officials in Minnesota? Well, normally I would, but they're crooked officials. I mean, Minneapolis and Minnesota, what a beautiful place. But it's being destroyed. It's got an incompetent governor fool. I mean, he's a stupid person. And it looks like the number could be $19 billion stolen from a lot of people, but largely people from Somalia. They buy their vote. They vote in a group. They buy their vote. They sell more Mercedes Benzes in that area than almost. Can you imagine? You come over with no money and then shortly thereafter you're driving a Mercedes Benz. The whole thing is ridiculous. So they're very corrupt people. It's a very corrupt state. I feel that I won Minnesota. I think I won it all three times. Nobody's won it for. Since Richard Nixon won it many, many years ago. I won it all three times, in my opinion. And it's a corrupt state, a corrupt voting state. And the Republicans ought to get smart and Demand on voter ID. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.