New Report: Trump Wanted “Payback” in Oil From Middle Eastern Nations

You can probably go ahead and add this new report to the long list of evidentiary proof of Donald Trump’s incompetence as a world leader (as well as an utter embarrassment to the reputation of the United States).

Sources have spoken with Axios about an obsession President Trump has with raiding the resources of other nations as “payment” for American efforts during the wars in the Middle East.

In 2017, early in the Trump administration, the president even went so far as to approach the Iraqi prime minister with his notion of repayment.

The president first brought it up in March 2017, near the end of a meeting with then-Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

“It was a very run-of-the-mill, low-key, meeting in general,” a source who was in the room told Axios. “And then right at the end, Trump says something to the effect of, he gets a little smirk on his face and he says, ‘So what are we going to do about the oil?'”

Let’s go ahead and clarify here that what President Best Brain was suggesting is a violation of international law.

The prime minister asked what he meant, only to get this doozy:

“And Trump’s like, ‘Well, we did a lot, we did a lot over there, we spent trillions over there, and a lot of people have been talking about the oil.'”

Al-Abadi “had clearly prepared,” the source added, “and he said something like, ‘Well, you know Mr. President, we work very closely with a lot of American companies and American energy companies have interests in our country,'” the source added. “He was smirking. And the president just kind of tapped his hand on the table as if to say ‘I had to ask.'”

Admittedly, this was early in Trump’s presidency, and he was clearly unprepared. He has done little to prepare for anything else he may encounter in the world, since that time. We are, however, post-competence and post-preparedness in the United States, these days. Experts in government are now eschewed by both sides of the political aisle, so we’ll just have to learn to deal with these embarrassments.

The sources within the room were apparently flabbergasted.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wow. He said it. He couldn’t help himself,'” the source said.

A second source who was in the room confirmed this account. “It was a look down and reach for your coffee moment,” the second source said.

Don’t you just know that there are Trump staff now, who may be asked in future job interviews what they did from 2016 to 2020, and their desperate reply may be to say they were in prison?

At least one adult in the room who wasn’t going to sit by and just let Trump drive our foreign policy over a cliff was H.R. McMaster, the now former national security adviser.

He apparently brought the subject of Iraqi oil and repayment up again with the al-Abadi in the summer of 2017. McMaster later smacked his hands.

In the source’s recollection, the former national security adviser said to Trump, “We can’t do this and you shouldn’t talk about it. Because talking about it is just bad,” the source said, channeling McMaster, “It’s bad for America’s reputation, it’ll spook allies, it scares everybody, and it makes us look like — I don’t remember if he used words this harsh — like criminals and thieves, but that was the point he was trying to get across.”

“You won’t be able to do it anyway and you’ll harm our reputation and your own reputation just from talking about it.”

And let’s not forget the propaganda win this would be for those who seek to criminalize the efforts of the United States abroad.

We weren’t in Iraq as liberators. We were there to steal their oil!

It’s a line that has been used for years, and we’ve been able to blow it off, because there was no deal made benefit from the Iraqi oil, other than to topple an oppressive regime.

In the face of critics, we still get to claim altruism and honor as the reasoning behind bringing down Saddam Hussein.

Then along comes Trump the Corrupt, the walking, talking embodiment of every anti-American argument ever made.

McMaster, who Trump reportedly never really warmed to, and was more than happy to replace with a more MAGA-friendly John Bolton, was not the only adult trying to clean up behind this abomination of a president.

It’s not a one-time thing. Two sources described being in the Situation Room in 2017 with Trump, Defense Secretary Mattis and national security officials discussing Iraq. Both said Trump brought up the prospect of seizing Iraq’s oil, and Mattis pushed back.

“Trump was like, ‘We’re idiots,'” recalled one of the sources who was in the Situation Room for the conversation. “[Trump] was like, ‘What are we doing there, what do we get out of this, why don’t we take the oil?’… And then Mattis spoke up. Made the same point that H.R. made. There’s no physical way to do it. It would be a violation of international law, it would be demoralizing for allies in the region, it would give our enemies propaganda — they’d be able to accuse us of theft.”

See?

Of course, talk of raiding the Middle East for resources has settled down, for now, but the report is still shocking. It reveals just how potentially disastrous a Trump presidency was – and still is – for our nation.

It also highlights how badly good people are needed to act as buffers between us and what Trump would do, if given his own way.