Trump's Venezuela oil grab could erode US economic power

An opinion piece arguing that Trump’s late-night raid on Venezuela to seize oil signals a government-backed resource grab for corporate allies, undermining Maduro’s legitimacy, flouting international law, and risking a dangerous precedent that could weaken the United States economically rather than strengthen it. It notes that Venezuelan heavy crude is costly to extract and that the broader US reliance on tariffs and cuts to science hurts long-term innovation, while the world’s electrification minerals (copper, lithium, aluminum) see China leading and the US lagging behind in competitiveness.