President Donald Trump posted a map of Venezuela covered by the US flag, labeling the South American country as the “51st State”.
The image, posted by Trump and amplified by the White House account, has turned a territorial provocation into a policy test as the relations is heightened to Washington’s post-Maduro oil, migration, and regional-security strategy.
There had been many candidates for the 51st state for Trump as he struggle to impose Washington’s global leadership. Amid the height of the “liberation tariffs”, Trump has been campaigning to make Canada the next new territory for the United States, to which Ottawa has vehemently opposed.
Trump has also been campaigning to buy Greenland from Denmark and make it part of the US, coupled with a tabled bill in the House to rename it as “Red, White, and Blueland”.
But while this can be charged to Trump’s fast-changing foreign policy or lack of seriousness, Fox News reported that Trump was “seriously considering” making Venezuela part of the United States, especially after the official White House X account reposted it.
The same report added that Trump tied his interest to Venezuela’s oil wealth, citing an estimated $40 trillion value. Oil exports from Venezuela have reached more than 1 million barrels per day in April, the highest level since 2018, under US management after the January US intervention that removed Nicolás Maduro from power.
That makes the statehood language a compression of several separate questions: who controls Venezuela’s oil recovery, how much US influence will remain during the transition, whether sanctions relief becomes permanent, and how foreign investment is structured after years of instability.
AP reported that acting President Delcy Rodríguez rejected the idea at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where she was attending hearings over the Essequibo dispute with Guyana. Rodríguez said Venezuela had no plans to become the 51st US state and framed the issue through sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.
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