Trump aide Stephen Miller suggests Venezuelan oil belongs to US

White House deputy chief of staff says US ‘created the oil industry in Venezuela’ as tensions intensify with Caracas.

Stephen Miller, a top aide to United States President Donald Trump, has suggested that Venezuela’s oil belongs to Washington, describing the nationalisation of the South American country’s petroleum industry as “theft”.

Miller’s comments on Wednesday raise further questions over the Trump administration’s claim that drug smuggling is its primary source of the tension with Venezuela.

“American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela,” Miller, who serves as White House deputy chief of staff, wrote in a social media post.

“Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.”

While US and British companies were involved in early oil exploration in Venezuela, the fuel belongs to the Latin American country under the international law principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources.