Thread by @peter_miller

This is from June. Trump helped engineer the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, and he did it openly. I’ll explain. (1/n)

According to @bulentgokay, the decline in the price of oil is the “most significant factor” in Venezuela’s economic turmoil.

Saudi Arabia deliberately flooded the market to try to “destroy the economy of Iran.” Instead it destroyed the economy of Venezuela.

That was written in 2017, when the situation was already bad. Now flash forward to Trump’s tweet. In November, Saudi Arabia set a new oil production record.

Now look at what happened to the price of oil between October and December.

In November, the UN said millions of refugees fled Venezuela because of food and medicine shortages.

Let’s look at that tweet again. Trump said that, due to turmoil in Iran and Venezuela, he asked Saudi Arabia to do something that was sure to increase turmoil in Iran and Venezuela.

When @bulentgokay’s article was published, no American official announced this policy. It was just understood that Saudi Arabia wouldn’t blow up the oil market without US approval.

And here we have Trump, gleefully tweeting about a plan to ramp up the economic warfare.

If Andrew McCabe is to be believed and Trump was nakedly lusting after the largest proven oil reserves in the world, then the humanitarian crisis isn’t just a pretext. It’s a weapon that he used against innocent people, the same ones he’s now claiming he wants to help.

McCabe’s story is credible. Let’s not forgot all the times Trump floated the idea of stealing oil from Iraq.

The US and Saudi Arabia intentionally manipulated the oil market, and, to lean on @bulentgokay again, that is the *primary reason* people are suffering in Venezuela — not Maduro, and not socialism.

We fixate on those because we’ve let Trump dictate the narrative. (end of thread)

Whoops, I used the wrong handle! It should be @BulentGokay3. My apologies to both Bülent Gökays.

Update for the Debate Men: Yes, I'm aware Venezuela's economic crisis started before Trump. It's in that article I mentioned a million times.

We only started saying it reached the level of a "humanitarian crisis" in late 2018.

And, yes, Saudi Arabia's first foray into oil market shenanigans was before Trump. I know. It's in that same article.

Trump put pressure on Saudi Arabia to do it again, which helped turn an economic crisis into a full-blown humanitarian one.

If there are any other objections, you know the drill: I need like six different men who didn't read the whole thread to @ me with the same message, since they didn't read all the replies.