State Department report counters Trump's claims of U.S. oil profits

Democratic lawmakers plan January push for Venezuela revenue oversight

A State Department report released Thursday runs counter to President Trump’s repeated statements that the United States is profiting from its control of Venezuelan oil money: most of the money from the oil sales has gone into the U.S.-controlled account and then right back to Venezuela, according to the report.

The report’s release comes as Democratic lawmakers are pledging to use the majority they will wield in January in Congress to demand more transparency into how the Trump administration is managing Venezuelan oil revenues and authorizing energy contracts as part of its deepening partnership with Maduro’s successor, interim President Delcy Rodríguez.

President Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. is profiting off its control of Venezuelan oil money, collecting billions of dollars and paying off the military intervention “many, many times over.” “To the victor belong the spoils,” he said at the United Nations in September.

Some $12.3 billion from the sale of oil and other Venezuelan natural resources was deposited into accounts controlled by the U.S. from January to the end of September, according to the 53-page “Report on Venezuela Custody Account Operations.” Nearly all of those funds came from oil sales, with a small amount from gold, minerals and fertilizer, the report says.

The report says the U.S. Treasury Department has disbursed $12.1 billion to the Venezuelan central bank after requests for the money have been reviewed and approved by Treasury and State Department officials, which amounts to nearly 99% of the revenue. As of Sept. 30, $168 million remained in U.S.-controlled accounts for future distribution to Venezuela. The U.S. says the program ensures transparency and accountability.

The report offers the first detailed accounting of the American takeover of Venezuelan finances since U.S. commandos captured President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3 and flew him to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges, which he denies.

The financial arrangement has drawn strong condemnation from stalwarts of Venezuela’s ruling leftist movement, some of whom accuse Rodríguez of selling out to the U.S. in order to maintain power. “There’s been a handover in Venezuela, a handover of sovereignty,” Mario Silva, a former top propagandist for the ruling movement who broke ranks earlier this year, said in a recent webcast. “We don’t even have sovereignty over our resources, nor what supposedly comes in for those resources.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has justified the U.S.’s management of the oil income as essential to prevent corruption and steer the troubled country’s recovery after rampant graft led to a near-collapse of the oil industry.

After the central bank receives the revenue from the U.S., it is allocated for government operations and disbursed to banks to strengthen the Bolivar currency and provide the dollars needed for importers to kick-start the economy.

Inflation has slowed moderately since the U.S. imposed its financial controls. Venezuelan central bank inflation data from October shows a year-over-year rate of 375%, among the world’s highest but a drop from 475% in 2025.

Ecoanalitica, a Caracas-based business consulting firm, estimates inflation could slow to 67% next year, when the economy is expected to grow 13.7% as the oil sector is revived.