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President Trump is boasting that he has concluded a great “deal” with Venezuela that would refill our depleted strategic petroleum reserves, reduce gas prices, and produce a long-lasting boon to America. As with all such Trump announcements, upon closer scrutiny, his boasts are empty and misleading. They also mask or neglect to note a much darker side to what has happened, the president’s judgment, his intentions, and the likely consequences of the whole endeavor.

Dig still deeper, however, and understanding the true nature of what has happened and where it may lead offers a direct path to better grasping the true risks of the Trump presidency, the origin of those risks, and how they tie directly into the core existential questions facing our society.

Trump said that what was worked out with Venezuelan authorities would give the U.S. access to 65 billion barrels of oil. Additional reporting indicated it would be done as part of a deal with a private Venezuelan oil company, North American Blue Energy Partners, owned by a Venezuelan businessman named Alejandro Betancourt Lopez. The U.S. would become a part-owner of that company and the new organization would receive, as a consequence, massive investment that could unleash oil production that would be enough to fill the U.S. strategic reserves, now at their lowest levels in decades as a consequence of tapping into them to make up for oil supply shortfalls related to the president’s illegal Iran War.

Trump, being Trump, hailed the deal as historic, world-changing, and observed it was being done in cooperation with the Venezuelan government headed by interim President Delcy Rodriguez, the U.S.-installed successor to former president Nicolas Maduro, who the U.S.........

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