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Watch Pete Hegseth's Face When Trump Brags About Stealing Oil

Channel: The Bulwark Published: 2026-06-25 20:30
The Bulwark

Will Saletan of The Bulwark argues that under Trump, US foreign policy has become a profit-driven extortion racket — extracting minerals from Ukraine, oil from Venezuela, and now targeting Iran's Kharg Island, Strait of Hormuz tolls, and coerced food purchases. He presents this as a moral crisis: America has abandoned being "the good guys" and is now acting like "pirates," with Congress and the Secretary of War complicit.

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Detailed summary

Will Saletan opens by framing a stark moral question: is the United States becoming "the world's most powerful criminal" under Donald Trump? He builds his case as a prosecutor would, layering evidence chronologically and thematically. **The Ukraine precedent.** Saletan begins with the mildest form of the alleged profiteering: Trump forcing Ukraine to share mineral rights in exchange for military aid that Biden had given freely. He plays a Trump clip where the president boasts, "I got rare earth back... …

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Main takeaways

  1. The video is a political op-ed, not market analysis — it argues that Trump has turned US foreign/military policy into a for-profit extortion enterprise.
  2. Saletan traces a progression: Ukraine minerals to Venezuela oil to Iran (Kharg Island seizure, Strait of Hormuz tolls, coerced food purchases).
  3. The central moral claim: America has abandoned the 'good guys' role and is now acting like 'pirates' — with Congress and cabinet complicit.
  4. Trump is quoted demanding a 20% cut of oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz and threatening to 'assume total control' of Iran's oil markets.
  5. No counterarguments, caveats, or alternative interpretations are presented — the piece is designed as a pure argument, not a balanced analysis.

Market read by horizon

Short term

Short-term: the transcript does not offer a market view, but the underlying events it documents — explicit US threats to seize Iranian oil infrastructure and tax Strait of Hormuz transit — represent genuine near-term tail risk for crude oil supply chains and maritime insurance pricing in the Persian Gulf.

  • Immediate narrative risk: Trump's explicit statements about seizing Kharg Island and controlling the Strait of Hormuz create genuine geopolitical uncertainty around Iranian oil flows and maritime security, regardless of whether one agrees with Saletan's moral framing.
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  • The 20% Hormuz toll concept, if pursued, would represent a direct US government claim on oil transit revenue — a policy shift with no modern precedent, creating short-term repricing risk for Middle East crude shipments.
Mid term

Medium-term: if the Strait of Hormuz toll or Kharg Island seizure materializes even partially, the oil market would need to reprice both physical supply risk and the precedent of the US acting as a rent-seeking gatekeeper rather than a neutral security provider — this changes the risk-free assumption around Gulf shipping.

  • If the US moves toward de facto control of the Strait of Hormuz, the medium-term question is whether this disrupts normal oil trade flows — tanker insurance costs, shipping route changes, and buyer behavior could shift even without open conflict.
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  • The Venezuela model — leaving an authoritarian government in place in exchange for resource extraction — introduces a new template for US intervention that markets may need to price: regime survival in exchange for resource concessions rather than regime change.
Long term

Long-term: the structural risk Saletan identifies — whether accurately framed or not — is that US military power shifts from underpinning the global commons to extracting rents from it. If that perception takes hold, it erodes the foundation of dollar hegemony, alliance reliability, and the post-WWII trade order over a multi-year horizon.

  • A structural shift in how the US exercises military power — from public-good provider (security guarantor, free navigation) to profit-seeking actor (toll collector, resource extractor) — would alter the dollar's reserve-currency role, alliance durability, and the global trade architecture over years.
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  • If resource extraction becomes an explicit US war aim, the long-term implications include potential erosion of property rights for foreign resource holders, reduced willingness of allies to host US bases, and a more fragmented global energy market.

Key claims (5)

6:35
BEARISH US foreign policy / international relations

Trump wants to seize Kharg Island and take control of Iran's oil, similar to what he did in Venezuela.

Speaker cites Trump's Truth Social post and quotes from an interview where Trump said 'You can make a fortune.'

0:40
BEARISH US foreign policy / international relations

Trump forced Ukraine to give the US a share of their minerals in exchange for military aid, making a profit on what the US gave.

Speaker cites Trump's own statement about getting rare earth back and getting more value than weapons given.

3:10
BEARISH US foreign policy / international relations

Trump's administration made a profit 40 times the cost of the Venezuela invasion by taking oil.

Speaker quotes Trump bragging about taking tremendous amounts of oil and making 40x returns.

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Assets discussed (6)

Oil (Venezuela)
UNCLEAR commodity

Trump claims US extracted oil worth 42x the invasion cost; Saletan cites this as evidence of profiteering but offers no market view.

Oil (Iran/Kharg Island)
UNCLEAR commodity

Trump threatens to seize Kharg Island and Iranian oil infrastructure; Saletan frames this as pending resource extraction.

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Interview (3 Q&A)

10:10
Iran food deal

What did Trump say about forcing Iran to buy food from American farmers?

Trump stated that as part of negotiations, unfrozen Iranian money will be used to buy food exclusively from US farmers - corn, soybeans and other things Iran needs. He said American farmers are 'very happy' about this new exclusive market.

12:40
Saudi airports

What did Trump say about the Saudis and using their airports?

Trump said the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is happy the US is using their airports, adding 'Not that they could stop us if we didn't want them to' - bragging that America's allies cannot stop the US from doing what it wants.

13:15
limits on power

What did Trump learn about the limits on his power?

Trump responded 'There are no limits' and said 'We defeated them totally militarily. I think that there are no limits. We have the most powerful military in the world by far.'

Where this transcript pushes against consensus

  • Zero counterarguments presented: Saletan offers no discussion of legitimate national-security rationales for controlling strategic chokepoints or resource access — the piece is a pure polemic.
  • The '42 times' profit figure from Trump is repeated without scrutiny or sourcing beyond Trump's own claim — no independent verification is attempted.
  • Saletan conflates distinct policy actions (selling weapons to allies, negotiating mineral deals, military intervention, toll proposals) under a single 'piracy' frame without examining whether each has distinct legal or strategic justifications.
  • No mention of the Maduro capture noted in related news context — the Venezuela situation may be more complex than pure resource extraction, given that regime-change elements (Maduro's arrest) exist alongside the oil deals Saletan cites.
  • The framing treats all resource-related coercion as morally equivalent (Ukraine minerals, Venezuela oil, Iran food/tolls), but these differ substantially in context — Ukraine was a voluntary ally seeking aid, Venezuela and Iran were adversarial states.

Topics

US foreign policy as profit-seeking enterpriseVenezuela oil extraction post-invasionIran: Kharg Island seizure threatsStrait of Hormuz toll proposals (20% transit fee)Ukraine minerals-for-aid dealCoerced Iranian food purchases from US farmersPete Hegseth and Lindsey Graham complicityTrump: 'no limits' on presidential powerGreenland and Gulf ally threatsMoral framing: US as 'pirates' vs 'good guys'

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