The truth behind Donald Trump’s ‘biggest oil deal in world history’

The US's oil deal with Venezuela faces multiple legal and logistical problems, including questions about whether it can be implemented

Donald Trump has long coveted the oilfields of other nations and declared an agreement with Venezuela to be the biggest oil deal in world history". But the deal, reached after the US seized Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, is almost certainly doomed to collapse amid a wide array of legal and logistical issues, a Guardian investigation has found.

The US president first mused about taking oil from Iran in 1987, when he told ABC's Barbara Walters that Iranian attacks on American shipping during the Iran-Iraq war required an extreme response. Why couldn't we go in and take over some of their oil, which is along the sea?" he asked. Over the ensuing years, he has returned frequently to the idea that America should seize oil from other countries after military conflict, from Libya to Iraq.