“Morning Joe” namesake Joe Scarborough said Tuesday that he spoke with President Donald Trump for about 20 minutes on Monday, and the president promised that U.S. action in Venezuela would be different than in Iraq because “we’re going to keep the oil.”
Scarborough said on his “MS NOW” show that the president initially spoke “offstage,” a journalistic protocol that typically allows sources to use their quotes without attribution. Trump then spent much of the conversation defending the U.S. effort to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, calling it “flawless” and that it would demonstrate U.S. power to adversaries such as Russia and Iran.
But when Scarborough pressed Trump about how the mission differed from President George W. Bush’s efforts in Iraq, Trump put the conversation on the record.
“I asked him, ‘Mr. President, when you say, ‘We’re going to take control,’ that’s obviously going to be of deep concern because of the disaster in Iraq,” Scarborough recalled. “The president’s response was: ‘Joe, the difference between Iraq and Iraq is Bush didn’t keep the oil. We’re going to keep the oil.’ To emphasize his point, Trump said his remarks were no longer in context, saying, ‘In 2016, I said we should keep the oil.’ “It’s very controversial. Well, we should keep the oil.”
Trump has repeatedly touted how U.S. operations in Venezuela will support U.S. oil companies, telling NBC News on Monday that he believed the U.S. could upgrade Venezuela’s oil infrastructure in less than 18 months.
“It’s going to cost a lot of money, and the oil companies are going to spend that money, and then we’ll compensate them through revenue,” Trump said.
Scarborough, who has feuded with the president over the years, said he has spoken to Trump “six times” since the president returned to the White House. He further noted that Monday’s conversation was the first time they had spoken “in months.”
‘Morning Joe’ Scarborough post details 20-minute call with Trump: ‘We’re going to keep the oil’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
