25 March—One of Donald Trump’s brilliant stratagems, detailed in his latest convoluted executive order, issued just yesterday, is to impose a so-called secondary tariff on any nation that buys Venezuelan oil.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio puts it thus on state.gov:

“The United States will not tolerate any third-countries or their oil companies producing, extracting, or exporting oil and oil-related products with the Maduro regime in Venezuela. This is a regime that has consistently stolen elections, pillaged from its people, and colluded with our enemies. Any country that allows its companies to produce, extract, or export from Venezuela will be subject to new tariffs, and any companies will be subject to sanctions.

“This statement follows President Trump’s recent Executive Order.”

Now the fun part. As it happens, the United States buys a fair amount of Venezuelan oil. In January, for instance, the U.S. imported 8.6 million barrels from Venezuela. Damn the sanctions and full speed ahead? And Trump 47 has made some artful deals with oil executives to keep the Venezuelan oil flowing north, at least for a while.

So presumably Chevron, for one, would pay the extra 25 percent to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency responsible for collecting tariffs. Yeah, right.

(Point of information: According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative—ustr.gov—“U.S. total goods trade with Venezuela were an estimated $10.2 billion in 2024. U.S. goods exports to Venezuela in 2024 were $4.2 billion, up 69.7 percent ($1.7 billion) from 2023. U.S. goods imports from Venezuela in 2024 totaled $6.0 billion, up 66.6 percent [$2.4 billion] from 2023. The U.S. goods trade deficit with Venezuela was $1.8 billion in 2024, a 59.7 percent increase [$656.3 million] over 2023.” So the U.S. has a trade deficit with a country it doesn’t trade with. Phantom commerce?)

Trump has scheduled his tariffs to kick in on 2 April. That’s his current plan, anyway, likely to change. He calls that Liberation Day “because we’re finally going to be taking in money.” In all events, he knew precisely what he was doing when he didn’t schedule Liberation Day to coincide with April Fool’s Day . . .