WH may reverse decision to kill Biden-Maduro oil deal, apply tariffs instead to avoid hurting US firms

FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump has signaled an openness to holding off on killing an oil deal forged between former President Joe Biden and Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, after he previously ordered Chevron and other U.S. firms to close up shop in oil-rich Venezuela.

Several Cabinet secretaries, including the Department of Energy’s Chris Wright, the Department of the Interior’s Doug Burgum and the Department of Commerce’s Howard Lutnick, were present during a meeting at the White House Wednesday, which also featured several oil executives and representatives of energy advocacy groups.

A source familiar with the events told Fox News Digital there was a brainstorming session as to how best to deal with Maduro and also help grow U.S. energy dominance and strengthen U.S. oil firms.

Trump reportedly explored ways to incentivize oil imports that would align with U.S. foreign policy goals while benefiting American consumers and workers.

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Lutnick reportedly floated the idea of increasing pressure on Maduro by tariffing Venezuela instead of revoking leases for what are U.S. oil firms, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Trump was warm to the idea, as he has long advocated a hardline stance against the Caracas dictatorship, said the source, who declined to be identified. 

Trump charged in February that the Maduro regime had not lived up to its end of the deal forged by his Delawarean predecessor, particularly in the form of election reform after the dictator "won" the latest disputed contest last year.

"We are hereby reversing the concessions that Crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, on the oil transaction agreement, dated November 26, 2022," Trump announced on Truth Social.

"Additionally, the regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our Country (the Good Ole’ U.S.A.) back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to."

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Trump called Biden’s agreement "ineffective and unmet" and ordered U.S. oil firms to begin winding down their presence in the country starting March 1.

Maduro deputy Delcy Rodriguez called the move "damaging and inexplicable." 

The source familiar with the meeting told Fox News Digital that Trump has indicated he wants to balance U.S. foreign policy challenges while seeing that the U.S. benefits from the heavy crude that Venezuela produces – which is tailor-made for the types of refineries that dot the Gulf Coast domestically and create U.S. jobs.

Fox News Digital reached out to Lutnick, Wright and the White House for comment. 

Wright previously told Reuters after the meeting that Trump's "whole economic agenda is to lower prices in the United States and grow job opportunities in the United States."

Earlier this month in Miami, Fox News Digital was one of a few media outlets on hand when Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla. – whose family fled the Castro dictatorship in the 1960s – hosted Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó at an event praising the Trump administration's hardline stance toward dictatorship.

In an exclusive interview, Gimenez said Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua are "all pretty much tied together" in the fact they are dictatorial regimes repressing their own people.

"I expect this is just the first step in trying to liberate these countries. The people of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua deserve freedom," he said of Trump's initial overtures toward Venezuela.

During the event, Guaidó also offered remarks in Spanish praising Trump and slamming Central American despots.

"[W]e need a strong, prosperous and safe Latin America – and one that will be safe, with democracy and freedom," he said.

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"I have no doubt in President Trump, and in the message that he is sending directly to the heart of those who financed the coup d'état perpetrated by the dictatorship on July 28, 2024 (the disputed/corrupt re-election of Maduro)…" he said.

"It is accurate, correct and timely to confront that dictatorship and also [send] a message to those who today usurp [power] in Cuba and Nicaragua that they will not have impunity," Guaidó added.

Venezuela had long been a friendly oil-trading partner of the U.S. until the leftist regime took root following the 1998 and 2000 elections under the rule of the late Hugo Chavez and foreign policy challenges arose.