‘Kept my promise to drill baby drill’: Trump says Venezuela sent 80 million barrels of oil to US

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (Feb 24) touted Venezuela as the “friend and partner” of the United States, saying that the South American nation sent more than 80 million barrels of oil to the US. He added that he “kept his promise to drill baby drill” by increasing the natural gas production by 600,000 barrels a day. The Republican made the remarks at his address at the State of the Union of his second term to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the United States Capitol.

“American oil production is up by 600,000 barrels a day, and we just received from our friend and partner, Venezuela, more than 80 million barrels of oil,” Trump said.

The US president added, “American natural gas production is at an all-time high because I kept my promise to drill baby drill.”

Trump also said that his administration has created thousands of jobs in the private sector.

“As thousands of new businesses are forming and factories, plants and laboratories are being built, we’ve added 70,000 new construction jobs in just a very short period of time. Getting bigger and bigger and stronger, nobody can believe what they’re watching,” he said. “We’re Americans are working today at any time in the history of our country more working today, and 100% of all jobs created under my administration have been in the private sector.”

This comes after Trump ordered American forces to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and bomb Caracas over alleged smuggling of drugs into the United States. Since then Trump administration has taken control of Venezuelan oil production.