Trump suggests Venezuela become the 51st US state and elect a governor

US President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that Venezuela become the 51st US state and that its citizens elect a governor instead of a president, at a rally at the port of Corpus Christi, Texas, where he announced the arrival of the first shipment of one million barrels of Venezuelan oil obtained under an agreement between Washington and Caracas.

“We’re bringing out a lot of oil for ourselves, a lot. It will become a prosperous country, and who knows? Maybe someday soon it will become a prosperous 51st state. That’s possible,” Trump said, standing beside an oil tanker at an event backing Republican candidates a week before the November 3 midterm elections. “Let’s make it. Let’s make it the 51st state. And instead of a president, we’ll have an election for a governor. How about that? You know, they have a lot of oil.”

The president thanked Venezuela for a relationship he described as “very, very good” and presented the shipment as “a historic win that gives us control over a massive part of the world’s oil supply”. The crude, which Trump described as free, will be refined in Texas, including in Corpus Christi. “Billions and billions of dollars are now being invested by the biggest oil companies,” he added.

This story was originally published by MercoPress. Read the full story at MercoPress →