On Friday, President Donald Trump announced that the United States had made a major oil deal with Venezuela that will more than double U.S. oil reserves.

• In a Truth Social post, he said U.S. officials and private companies had gained majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan oil reserves across 17 oil fields.
• The deal does not give the U.S. title to the oil itself but rather a joint venture that gives the U.S. a majority share of future output from those 17 fields.

Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s acting president, confirmed what she called a historic deal, saying the plan should raise production, create jobs, and rebuild the oil industry.

• The announcement follows the U.S. military’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January. Trump has since sought closer ties with Venezuela’s interim government and has used U.S. leverage over Venezuelan oil to pressure Communist-run Cuba. He has cut oil shipments to Cuba to force the Communist government there to “make a deal.”

In America Under Attack, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry reveals that President Trump is an end-time type of the ancient Israelite King Jeroboam ii, who presided over a national resurgence. In the eighth century b.c. Jeroboam conquered Damascus and Hamath, weakening Israel’s Syrian neighbors.

• Yet in doing so, he inadvertently removed a key regional power that was preventing the Assyrian Empire’s rise to dominance.

This history may be repeating itself with President Trump. His moves against Cuba and Venezuela are empowering America by weakening the grip of China and Russia in the Caribbean. Yet the downfall of Maduro has also strengthened Roman Catholic influence in both Cuba and Venezuela.

In Revelation 17 and 18, God labels the German-led, Vatican-influenced empire currently emerging in Europe as “Babylon the great.”

• In corresponding Old Testament prophecies of Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 27, this empire appears under the name of Tyre, the most powerful trading center of the ancient Mediterranean. This powerful trade bloc is prophesied to besiege and conquer the U.S.
• This makes President Trump’s moves in Latin America ironic.

The Trump administration is pushing one U.S. enemy out of Venezuela, but it is blind to the rise of another enemy that God will allow to punish the U.S. if its people do not repent of their many sins.