By Ben Geman
Potential GOP White House candidate Donald Trump is vowing an aggressive approach to ensure more plentiful oil supplies from OPEC producers to combat higher prices at the gas pump.
In an interview Monday with ABC News, Trump said Saudi Arabia — the dominant OPEC producer that has a longstanding security relationship with the U.S. — should be providing more oil.
And the businessman and TV celebrity more broadly bashed OPEC, which includes other nations with security ties to the U.S., including Kuwait.
“These 12 guys sit around a table and they say, ‘Let’s just screw the United States.’ And frankly, the rest of the world,” Trump said. “I’m going to look 'em in the eye and say, ‘Fellas, you’ve had your fun. Your fun is over.’ ” Asked if he would threaten to take away security protection, Trump replied: “Absolutely.”
He also suggested that the U.S. should take control of Iraqi oil supplies.
“We go into Iraq. We have spent, thus far, $1.5 trillion. We could have rebuilt half of the United States. $1.5 trillion. And we’re going to then leave. So, in the old days, you know, when you had a war, to the victor belong the spoils,” Trump said, according to an ABC transcript.
“You go in. You win the war and you take it,” Trump said. He rejected the idea that seizing Iraqi oil fields would be stealing. “You’re not stealing anything. You’re taking — we’re reimbursing ourselves — at least, at a minimum, and I say more. We’re taking back $1.5 trillion to reimburse ourselves,” he said.
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