00:00Liam, you'll excuse the cynicism here, but do you see this as a bet on the next hundred years,
00:04or is this simply a play for something to happen here over the next eight weeks or so before the
00:09midterm elections?
00:10The next hundred hours?
00:11Mm-hmm.
00:12In terms of what the U.S. wants here, or what Trump wants, I think you can answer that on
00:17two levels.
00:17So there is the kind of grand strategy long-term answer,
00:21which is that the U.S. can somehow fashion some kind of Western Hemisphere oil fortress,
00:28and Venezuela will be very much a part of that.
00:31The other answer to that question is that Trump needs a win on what he did in Venezuela.
00:37He badly needs to signal that he's noticing people's unease about fuel prices,
00:45which are, you know, diesels at a record, gasoline is close to a record.
00:51You know, it's very possible that with these midterms,
00:54we may enter the midterms with gasoline above $4 a gallon on average for the very first time.
00:59It's clear that this is really weighing on the administration.
01:04And that's why I feel like, you know, the holes and the contradictions in this deal, to me,
01:11speak to the need to send a signal and, you know, worry about the execution later.
01:17J.A.:
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