Trump Touts One Key ‘Difference’ Between Iraq and Venezuela in Call with Joe Scarborough: ‘Bush Didn’t Keep the Oil!’

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough revealed the reply that President Donald Trump gave him when he asked the president about comparisons between his intervention in Venezuela and “America’s failed occupation of Iraq” – telling the host, simply, that this time, “We’re going to keep the oil.”

Scarborough opened the show by sharing that he’d spoken with Trump several times since he returned to the White House and called on Monday after the surprise Delta Force operation conducted Saturday, which saw the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. The move followed months of strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels from the country.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday, the president explained that he wanted U.S. oil companies to go into the country to rebuild the energy infrastructure and to “get the oil flowing the way it should be.”

The Morning Joe host explained that he called to see if he could find out “what was coming next” and that most of his 20-minute conversation with Trump involved the president “recounting the U.S. military’s flawless execution of the operation.”

“He talked an awful lot about the courage shown by those who raided Maduro’s fortress, and how quickly they dispensed with the scores of Cuban troops who were guarding the Venezuelan dictator. The president concluded his summary of the attack by noting the message that this will surely send about America’s strength to Putin, Xi, and Iran,” Scarborough relayed.

The host then explained that after Trump gave the same answers about “what comes next” that he’d been giving publicly, he pressed the president on “comparisons” to former President George W. Bush’s intervention in Iraq.

Scarborough said:

But when I pressed comparisons with America’s failed occupation of Iraq, the president’s response was very different. I asked him, I said, ‘Mr. President, when you say, quote, we’re going to run everything that obviously causes deep concerns because of the disaster in Iraq.’

The president’s response, ‘Joe, the difference between Iraq and this is that Bush didn’t keep the oil. We’re going to keep the oil.’

And to underline his point, Trump said his comments were no longer on background and said: ‘In 2016, I said we should have kept the oil. It caused a lot of controversy. Well, we should have kept the oil’ – the president said – ‘and we’re going to rebuild their broken down oil facilities, and this time we’re going to keep the oil.’

“Saying the United States is entering a new era of geopolitical engagement seems to be an understatement,” Scarborough concluded.

Watch above via MS NOW.