National security reporter reveals mind-boggling taxpayer cost of Trump’s Venezuela project

U.S. President Donald Trump listens to a reporter’s question aboard Air Force One en route from Florida to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., January 4, 2026.

 REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Thomas Kika

January 06, 2026 

ALTERNET

The real cost of President Donald Trump's plans for Venezuela is beginning to emerge.

Despite his earlier claim that the U.S. incursion there would cost nothing, a national security reporter for MS NOW on Tuesday argued that the entire project could cost U.S. taxpayers billions and last for decades.

Over the weekend, the U.S. military conducted a strike on Caracas, Venezuela, leading to the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro, who will face "narco-terrorism" charges in New York City. Reports indicate that roughly 70 were killed in the attack, including around 40 Venezuelan civilians.

Trump has stated bluntly in the aftermath of the operation that the plan is for the U.S. to take control of the country's vast oil fields and rebuild them. While Trump initially claimed that the operations in Venezuela would be entirely paid for by oil profits, he later said there might be a cost to US taxpayers.

During a Tuesday appearance on Ana Cabrera Reports, MS Now national security reporter David Rhode confirmed that the project "to fix up the oil infrastructure in Venezuela" could cost $100 billion in taxpayer money.

"It means money, money, money for oil companies," Rhode said. "That $100 billion figure that you mentioned is accurate at the beginning of the broadcast. And that's going to be funded by U.S. taxpayers, in terms of the initial efforts to reconstruct this industry."

Aside from the high price tag, Rhode also noted that the plan to start harvesting oil from the South American country could take decades to come to fruition.

"And it could take 10 to 20 years to get this heavy crude out of the ground in Venezuela. It's heavy crude," Rhode continued. "It needs a lot of refining, and it's difficult to extract from the ground."

The cost to American taxpayers does not end with the plans to rebuild the country's oil industry, as the continued U.S. military presence in Venezuela and the first raid to capture Maduro also carry a hefty price.

"The other cost here is these military actions," Rhode explained. "A colleague of ours at MS NOW was told by a former senior military official that... this raid itself cost anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion. And to continue to have this flotilla of ships, continue to have all these aircraft over Venezuela or near Venezuela, that costs taxpayers as well. So this is not free or cheap or easy. And again, you can't just claim to run a country and then pretend it doesn't cost anything and you don't have any responsibility."