Trump floats seizing Iranian oil, cites “winner takes the spoils” approach

President Donald Trump offered some insight into how he thinks about controlling oil in both Iran and Venezuela, as he’s said he would like to seize Iran oil: “To the winner belong the spoils.”

“If I had my choice, yeah, because I’m a businessman first,” Trump told reporters at a press conference on the US-Iran war this afternoon, when asked to clarify his comments from earlier in the day regarding his views about seizing Iranian oil — which he acknowledged could be politically risky, CNN reports.

“With Venezuela, as you know, the war was over in about 45 minutes,” Trump said, referring to the US operation in January to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. “And we have great people running Venezuela, very good people. I mean, the relationship is good, and we are a partner with Venezuela, and we’ve taken hundreds of millions of barrels, hundreds of millions.”

Venezuela’s interim leadership has indicated a willingness to sell oil to the United States and partner with the US more closely.

Although Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to reprise that situation in similarly oil-rich Iran, he said earlier today that he doesn’t know whether Americans support such a move.