Sadly, we have an idiot running the country.

In a fresh twist on U.S.-Venezuela drama, President Trump is clashing with Exxon Mobil over his ridiculous push to revive the country’s massive but battered oil sector following the U.S.-backed ouster of Nicolás Maduro.

At a White House meeting on Friday with top oil executives, Trump pitched big incentives: unspecified U.S. security guarantees for companies willing to invest heavily in fixing Venezuela’s crumbling energy infrastructure. He envisions U.S. firms (and others) pouring in billions to boost production, lower global energy prices, and deliver economic wins back home.

But Exxon CEO Darren Woods wasn’t buying the hype. He bluntly called Venezuela “uninvestable” right now, citing the need for major overhauls to commercial frameworks, the legal system, investment protections, and hydrocarbon laws. Exxon has painful history there—assets nationalized twice (most notably in 2007 under Chávez/Maduro), leading to a long arbitration battle where they recovered only a fraction of the claimed $12 billion. Woods said any return would require “pretty significant changes” from past conditions, though he left the door open for a technical team to assess assets soon.

Trump didn’t take the caution well, and of course he’s acting like a child. On Sunday aboard Air Force One, he told reporters: “I’ll probably be inclined to keep Exxon out… I didn’t like their response. They’re playing too cute.” He claimed other companies are eager to jump in and dismissed past losses, saying, “We’re not gonna look at what people lost in the past. You’re gonna make a lot of money, but we’re not going to go back.”

Similar hesitancy came from ConocoPhillips (also burned for billions in 2007 nationalizations) and even Chevron (the only major U.S. player still active there), which offered modest ramp-up potential but no huge commitments.

This episode exposes the gap between Trump’s authoritarian delusions and corporate pragmatism. Trump seems to assume that toppling a regime and waving security promises is enough to get Big Oil marching into Venezuela’s fields like it’s a surefire gold rush. Yet executives remember the expropriations, outstanding debts, political instability, and the massive capital needed to revive dilapidated operations—risks that don’t vanish overnight with presidential assurances.

The result? A public spat where the president threatens to sideline the largest U.S. oil company from his own “America First” energy vision. It’s a stark reminder: oil isn’t pumped by fiat. Even with military-backed regime change, companies won’t ignore billions in past losses, legal uncertainties, or the need for durable protections just because a president says “come on in.”

This is another pathetic example of Trump’s foolishness, thinking you can conquer a country, seize its oil, and have corporations line up like it’s a government contract. Reality check: Exxon isn’t a branch of the military; it’s a business that learned the hard way Venezuela isn’t a reliable partner.

Also, there’s the reality US oil companies have strong incentives not to support (or eagerly participate in) a rapid flood of cheap Venezuelan oil onto global markets. These companies are heavily reliant on fracking, particularly the independent shale producers in places like the Permian Basin. Frackers don’t want to fund competition that tanks their margins in an already oversupplied world. Trump’s vision of cheap Venezuelan oil as an “America First” win ignores how it could hurt the very US energy sector he champions, highlighting yet another gap between idiotic political bravado and market reality.

This has been a big issue in Pennsylvania, and not it’s moving to Eastern Ohio.

The boom in gas wells that turned Pittsburgh into “the new Houston,” made rich men out of poor farmers and spawned an environmental backlash has reached Ohio.

Land men, including free-wheeling shysters as well as legitimate gas and oil company employees, are swarming Ohio’s eastern counties, clogging county courthouses with their property record searches and pestering busy farmers.

Their objective: to tie up as much acreage as possible by persuading landowners to sign five-year leases granting them the right to drill for oil and gas in the rock known as Utica and Marcellus shale, buried thousands of feet below.

Geological experts have estimated that the gas-and-oil-rich shale may lie under 5 million acres of rural Ohio landscape and the deposits could contain energy equivalent to billions of barrels of oil.

The implications for Ohio’s economy are tremendous, but so are the challenges for landowners, many of them poor farmers who must first sort through the thorny offers of oil companies, and then wrestle the financial decisions of sudden wealth.

Prices keep going up for leases, so the frenzy is getting even more intense.

Many U.S. oil and gas companies are getting involved.

One of the latest hot spots for deal making is far from New York City or Silicon Valley—it’s in eastern Ohio, where energy companies are staking claims in what is being touted as North America’s next big energy field, the Utica Shale.

While the 170,000-square-mile Utica Shale sprawls beneath parts of eight states and Canada, energy companies and analysts believe the richest reserves of oil and valuable natural-gas liquids, such as propane and butane, lie in eastern Ohio.‬

In recent weeks the buzz around the area has intensified. Large producers’ moves into the area are becoming public. This month has seen big acquisitions. And stock analysts are recommending shares of small companies with Ohio acreage.

Last week, Exxon Mobil Corp. confirmed it is snapping up drilling rights in the Utica Shale. Exxon won’t say how much land it has locked up or where the property lies. But the move caught Wall Street analysts’ attention.

This industry has the potential to turbo-charge the U.S. economy, but at the same time environmentalists are concerned from both a global warming and safe drinking water point of view. Expect serious battles ahead.