US President Donald Trump has floated Venezuela as the United States’ 51st state and hailed the ‘greatest’ oil deal with Caracas, while showing off a claimed 1-million-barrel oil tanker.

Speaking at a campaign rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday, Trump boasted about an oil deal with Venezuela as the “greatest oil victory in history”, nine months after Washington captured incumbent Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in a swift military operation and brought him to the US for trial over alleged criminal charges.

The American president added that the oil deal struck with Washington-backed interim government of the South American country will cover “billions” of barrels of oil.

Trump also flaunted a tanker he claimed had “one million barrels of oil on it” which was captured from the oil-rich country.

Venezuela “will become a prosperous country, and who knows? Maybe someday soon it’ll become a prosperous 51st state,” Trump said at the podium, adding, “That’s possible.”

The US president had previously floated the idea of acquiring other countries and territories, including Greenland, Canada and Mexico.

Opinion polls show that Trump’s hostile foreign policy, including an unprovoked war of aggression against Iran and imposing tariffs on goods from much of the world, have challenged his popularity back home, with his approval ratings falling to records lows.

In a post on his Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump promised Americans, under pressure from surging oil prices, that the cost of living “will soon come plummeting down.”

“By unleashing Energy Dominance from Alaska, all the way down to Venezuela, I have made the Western Hemisphere the Energy Capital of the World,” he added.

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US-Venezuela oil agreement extends beyond commerce, reflecting Washington’s longstanding history of intervention, influence, and strategic resource interests across Latin America and the Caribbean, says journalist Alejandro Kirk.

Speaking to his supporters at the rally, the US president also said, “We’re celebrating the greatest oil victory in history. The oil provided is being provided to the United States at zero cost to the American taxpayer.”

Iran has refused to ease its restrictions on transit through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, saying the key international energy waterway will be fully reopened once the US permanently ends its aggression and lifts its maritime blockade and sanctions against the country.

Roughly one-fifth of global oil demand passes through the Strait of Hormuz, making the waterway one of the world's most strategically important maritime chokepoints.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused gas prices to go up across the US, prompting the White House to reach an urgent oil agreement with Caracas.