Trump said Monday that the United States has taken in more than $13 billion from Venezuela and suggested the money could be used to run the country, but he gave no precise answer on where it is now. Asked aboard Air Force One where the money was going, he said it could go to the military and added that Congress would have to approve it.
The question matters because Trump did not just talk about a distant accounting detail. He was responding in the moment on Monday afternoon, when the money was already a political issue and still without a clear destination. He also said, “Thirteen billion from Venezuela? I think even more than that,” and later insisted, “Towards running the country. It can go to the military. Congress has to approve it.... We’re taking in a lot of money. Billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela.”
That answer only widened the gap between the money Trump described and the money that could actually be tracked. The Financial Times reported last week that after six months and two devastating earthquakes, the money was still nowhere to be found, even though the Trump administration must have collected an estimated $13 billion. In an earlier report, Semafor said Trump would be keeping proceeds from the first sale in an offshore bank account based in Qatar. Neither account leaves the destination of the funds settled.
Trump has repeatedly cast the money as the result of a larger cost and said, “We had a cost.... We paid for it many many times over.” That framing did not answer the basic question of who controls the revenue now, or what Congress has approved. If the money is meant to go toward running the country or the military, the next step is not a policy speech but a paper trail, and that trail is still missing.
