Billionaire Trump megadonor set to make killing on Venezuela oil

One of President Donald Trump’s top billionaire donors, who has spent the past several months backing a push for regime change inVenezuela, is about to cash in after the president’s weekend kidnapping of the nation’s president,Nicolas Maduro.

While he declined to tell members of Congress, Trump has said hetipped offoilexecutives before the illegal attack. At a press conference following the attack, he said the US would have “our very largeUnited Statesoil companies” go into Venezuela, which he said the US will “run” indefinitely, and “start making money” for the United States.

As Judd Legumreportedon Monday forPopular Information,among the biggest beneficiaries will be the billionaire investor Paul Singer:

In 2024, Singer, an 81-year-old with a net worth of $6.7 billion, donated $5 million to Make America Great Again Inc., Trump’s Super PAC. Singerdonatedtens of millions more in the 2024 cycle to support Trump’s allies, including $37 million to support the election ofRepublicansto Congress. He also donated anundisclosed amountto fund Trump’s second transition.

In November 2025, less than two months before Trump’s operation to take over Venezuela, Singer’s investment firm, Elliott Investment Management, inked a highly fortuitous deal.

It purchased Citgo, the US-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, for $5.9 billion—a sale that was forced by a Delaware court after Venezuela defaulted on its bond payments.

Elliott Managementhailedthe court order requiring the sale in a press release, saying it was “backed by a group of strategic US energy investors.”

Singer acquired Citgo’s three massive coastal refineries, 43 oil terminals, and more than 4,000 gas stations at a major discount because of its distressed status. Advisers to the court overseeing the sale estimated its value at $11-13 billion, while the Venezuelan government estimated it at $18 billion.

As Legum explained, the Trump administration’s embargo on Venezuelan oil imports to the United States bore the primary responsibility for the company’s plummeting value:

Citgo’s [refineries] arepurpose-built to process heavy-grade Venezuelan “sour” crude. As a result, Citgo was forced to source oil from more expensive sources in Canada and Colombia. (Oil produced in the United States is generally light-grade.) This made Citgo’s operations far less profitable.

It is the preferred modus operandi for Singer, whose hedge fund is oftendescribedas a “vulture” capital group. As Francesca Fiorentini, a commentator atZeteo,explained, Singer “is famous for doing things like buying the debt of struggling countries like Argentina for pennies on the dollar and then forcing that country to repay him with interest plus legal fees.”

Venezuelan Vice President and Minister of Petroleum Delcy Rodríguezin Decemb3r calledthe sale of Citgo to Singer “fraudulent” and “forced.”

After the US abducted Maduro this week, TrumpnamedRodriguez as Venezuela’s interim president – and she was formallyswornin Monday – but hewarnedthat she’ll pay a “very big price” if she refuses to do “what we want.”

That is good news for Singer, who is expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of an oil industry controlled by US corporations, which will likely not be subject to crippling sanctions.

Singer has reportedly met with Trump directly at least four times since he was first elected in 2016, mostrecentlyin 2024. While it is unknown whether the two discussed Venezuela during those meetings, groups funded by Singer have pushed aggressively for Trump to take maximal action to decapitate the country’s leadership.

Since 2011, Singer has donated over $10 million and continues to sit on the board of directors for theright-wingManhattan Institute think tank, which in recent months has consistently advocated for Maduro to be removed from power. In October, itpublishedan article praising Trump for his “consistent policies against Venezuela’s Maduro.”

Singer has also been amajor donorto the neoconservative think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), serving as its second-largest contributor from 2008-2011, with more than $3.6 million.

In late November, shortly before Trumpannouncedthat the US had closed Venezuelan airspace and begun toimpoundVenezuelan oil tankers, FDD published apolicy briefstating that the US has “capabilities to launch an overwhelming air and missile campaign against the Maduro regime” that it could use to remove him from power.

Singer himself has acted as a financial attack dog for Trump during his first year back in office. In June, hecontributed$1 million to fund a super PAC aiming to oust Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who’d become Trump’s leading Republican critic over the Trump administ Department of Justice’s refusal to release its files pertaining to the billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

A super PAC tied to Miriam Adelson, another top pro-Israel donor who recentlysaidshe’d give Trump $250 million if he ran for a third term, alsoreportedlyhelped to fund the campaign against Massie.

Massie has since gone on to be one of the mostvocal opponentsin Congress to Trump’s regime change push in Venezuela, joining Democrats to co-sponsor multiple failedwar powers resolutionsthat would have reined in the president’s ability to launch military strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and launch an attack on mainland Venezuela.

As theTrump administrationhas asserted that American corporations are entitled to the oil controlled by Venezuela’s state firm, Massierebuttedthis weekend that: “It’s not American oil. It’s Venezuelan oil.”

“Oil companies entered into risky deals to develop oil, and the deals were canceled by a prior Venezuelan government,” he said. “What’s happening: Lives of US soldiers are being risked to make those oil companies (not Americans) more profitable.”

Massiesaidthat Singer, “who’s already spent $1,000,000 to defeat me in the next election, stands to make billions of dollars on his distressed Citgo investment, now that this administration has taken over Venezuela.”

Fiorentini added that “Paul Singer’s shady purchase of Citgo has everything to do with this coup.”

This article, originally published by Common Dreams, is republished under a Creative Commons license.