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Posted on 09/29/2026 3:05:47 PM PDT by delta7
In early March, as President Trump basked in the success of a military intervention in Venezuela, he joined Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in the West Wing for a private celebration. A businessman also attended, and brought along a pile of gold.
The president looked approvingly at the 10 Venezuelan gold bars stacked in the Roosevelt Room, across from the Oval Office, White House officials recalled. Aides took photos and joked about keeping the gold.
Mr. Trump himself had once blacklisted Venezuelan gold, declaring that it destroyed the environment, poisoned people and financed gangsters and corrupt military officials. But after Mr. Trump toppled the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, his view changed.
On the same day that the bars arrived at the White House, the Trump administration issued a new policy allowing traders to import Venezuelan gold from one of the world's most violent and corrupt mining regions. The first supplies would come from a state-owned mining company that remained a designated U.S. national security threat.
"Usually, you have to be in the Olympics to bring back the gold," Mr. Burgum later said at an energy conference, regaling listeners with the tale of how he had opened Venezuela's gold pipeline.
The gold trading deal exemplified how Mr. Trump used the capture of Mr. Maduro to gain control of Venezuela's resources. First, he took charge of Venezuela's oil exports. Next, his administration turned to Venezuela's mineral wealth.
That included one of the world's largest untapped gold reserves at a time when the prices were near record highs and buyers were hungry for it.
The Trump administration and its business allies said that gold sales would benefit the U.S. economy; help develop Venezuela's mining region; and deprive criminals and corrupt officials of income.
But a New York Times investigation, from the mines of southern Venezuela to the White House to the trading houses of Europe, found that Mr. Trump aligned America with an industry that is still plagued by the very criminality that he said he was fighting by arresting Mr. Maduro.
Planes carried gold out of Venezuela before companies had even visited the mines. Some of that gold, The Times found, is linked to miners who pay gang protection money. That allows criminals to profit from the administration's signature deal.
And American financiers are investing in a mine tied to gangsters as part of a deal brokered by the Trump administration.
Venezuelan gold had once benefited American adversaries like Iran. Mr. Trump sought to redirect it to the United States to be refined.
But partly as a consequence of the administration's hasty approach, all that gold -- hundreds of millions of dollars' worth -- sits untouched in warehouses, according to three people with knowledge of the shipments. Refiners would need to guarantee, under international rules, that the gold has not funded gangs, environmental destruction or corruption. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
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What’s Gata. A commie Russki rag?
An example of “ demonizing Gold”, the predictable next step as inflation is sky rocketing.
Virtue signaling will be the death of the world.
"Oh, we can't use Russian oil or natural gas!
But the Chinese and India can...
What’s Gata. A commie Russki rag?
10 Venezuelan gold bars
Gold is usually already refined by the time it is cast into bars, yes?
“Refiners would need to guarantee, under international rules, that the gold has not funded gangs, environmental destruction or corruption.”
Just have one of Obama’s sons take the gold in they’ll be paid in a heartbeat.
Enough said!
When has the NYSLimes ever been a reputable source here on FR?
Every word and punctuation mark after that attribution is an insult to patriotic Americans...
"Refined" by degree, and it varies significantly. A lot of what is in Ft. Knox is said not to meet modern standards.
Gata is "cat" in Spanish.
Rather than liberating Venezuela, Trump swapped the Cubans out with Washington as the great exploiter of Venezuela. And people wonder why I’m disgusted with the state of Washington? I’m not interesting in benefitting from corruption. I just want the corruption to _stop_.
Who the hell is Gata? Seems like BS to me.
“Largely unreported by our MSM.”
Maybe because the story isn’t true.
The MSM needs at least five anonymous sources, and this report is only “according to three people with knowledge of the shipments.”
“We need to make up two more anonymous sources, then we’ll go with the story.”
If true, then Pres. Trump has a chance to strong arm the Venezuelan government to clean up the gold mining mess and introduce modern mining to the jungle.
What happened to the Venezuelan drug cartels? I thought that that is what the invasion of the country with the most oil reserves in the world was about. Now there is gold too? hmmmm
Gata Infomercial. Has been pulled before.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4391645/posts
😫
Where’s your Big Buddy these days, Flossie? 😉😂😂
To what level of purity is the question. DIY can cast ingots of dubious purity.
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