Venezuela raid enriches MAGA billionaire
The ouster of Maduro is a financial windfall for a prominent Trump-supporting billionaire, investor Paul Singer.
In a Saturday morning military raid ordered by President Trump, U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. After Maduro was apprehended and transported to New York to face criminal charges, Trump announced that the U.S. would “run” Venezuela for the indefinite future.
The extraordinary attack, which legal experts said violated U.S. and international law, created a financial windfall for a prominent Trump-supporting billionaire, investor Paul Singer.
In 2024, Singer, an 81-year-old with a net worth of $6.7 billion, donated $5 million to Make America Great Again Inc., Trump’s Super PAC. Singer donated tens of millions more in the 2024 cycle to support Trump’s allies, including $37 million to support the election of Republicans to Congress. He also donated an undisclosed amount to fund Trump’s second transition.
This June, when Trump sought funds to bankroll a primary challenger to Thomas Massie (R-KY), who raised Trump’s ire by supporting the release of the Epstein Files, Singer contributed $1 million, the largest contribution.
Since Trump was first elected in 2016, Singer has met personally with Trump at least four times. “Paul just left and he’s given us his total support,” Trump declared after meeting with Singer at the White House in February 2017. “I want to thank Paul Singer for being here and for coming up to the office. He was a very strong opponent, and now he’s a very strong ally.” In 2016, Singer initially supported Marco Rubio, who is now Trump’s Secretary of State.
In November 2025, Singer acquired Citgo, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-run oil company. Singer, through his private investment firm, Elliott Investment Management, bought Citgo for $5.9 billion. The sale to Amber Energy, a subsidiary of Elliott Investment Management, was forced by creditors of Venezuela after the country defaulted on its bond payments.
Citgo owns three major refineries on the Gulf Coast, 43 oil terminals, and a network of over 4,000 independently owned gas stations. By all accounts, Singer acquired these assets at a major discount. Advisors to the court that oversaw the sale valued Citgo at $13 billion, while Venezuelan officials said the assets were worth as much as $18 billion.
Singer acquired Citgo at a bargain price in large part due to the embargo, with limited exceptions, on Venezuela oil imports to the United States. Citgo’s refiners are purpose-built to process heavy-grade Venezuelan “sour” crude. As a result, Citgo was forced to source oil from more expensive sources in Canada and Colombia. (Oil produced in the United States is generally light-grade.) This made Citgo’s operations far less profitable.
Elliott Investment Management is known as a “vulture” fund because it specializes in buying distressed assets at rock bottom prices.
Maduro’s government was also seeking to appeal court approval of Singer’s bid for Citgo. Now that Maduro has been ousted, however, it seems unlikely that the appeal will continue.
Trump has sought to justify military action against Venezuela as an effort to disrupt narcotics trafficking. But Venezuela produces no fentanyl and is a minor source of cocaine that reaches the United States. Trump also recently pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, who was convicted of drug trafficking.
Further, Trump has long made clear that he was interested in Venezuela for the oil. In remarks to the North Carolina Republican Party in 2023, Trump said that when he left office in 2021, Venezuela was “ready to collapse.” Trump said, had he remained in office, the U.S. “would have taken [Venezuela] over” and “gotten all that oil.”
In remarks on Fox News Saturday, Trump made clear that one of the motivations for Saturday’s attack was to increase the production and export of Venezuelan oil. Venezuela has the largest proven reserves of crude oil in the world. Trump said that, moving forward, the U.S. would be “very strongly involved“ with the Venezuelan oil industry.
Industry observers anticipate “a rapid rerouting of Venezuelan oil exports, re-establishing the U.S. as the major buyer of the country’s volumes.” Jaime Brito, an oil analyst at OPIS, said access to Venezuelan oil imports “will be a game changer for U.S. Gulf Coast… refiners in terms of profitability.”
Paul Singer, thanks to a well-timed transaction, will be one of the largest beneficiaries.
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Singer funds push for regime change in Venezuela
Trump’s military action in Venezuela may have been a surprise to many Americans. But it did not occur in a vacuum. Singer helped establish elite political support for regime change in Venezuela through his funding of right-wing think tanks.
Singer has donated over $10 million to the Manhattan Institute since 2011, including $2 million in 2024 and $1.8 million in 2023. From 2008 to 2025, Singer served as chairman of the Manhattan Institute board of directors. He currently serves as chairman emeritus.
The Manhattan Institute has produced a steady stream of papers and reports calling for Maduro’s ouster and defending Trump’s aggressive policies against the regime.
“The question that remains is how to remove Maduro from power,” Manhattan Institute Graduate Fellow Daniel Di Martino wrote in an August 2024 article. A September 2025 column criticized Columbian President Gustavo Petro for opposing foreign military intervention in Venezuela designed to oust Maduro. An October 2025 piece by another Manhattan Institute analyst and a co-author praised Trump’s “consistent policies against Venezuela’s Maduro,” describing them as part of an effective strategy to eventually remove Maduro from power. And a November 2025 article criticized Democrats for raising the alarm about Trump’s push for regime change in Venezuela.
Singer is also a major donor to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). In November 2025, FDD produced a report calling for military strikes in Venezuela. “The United States should strike cartel infrastructure, drug production facilities, and regime military assets that enable narcoterrorism,” the FDD report argued.
Singer has supported other right-wing think tanks that have promoted hawkish U.S. policies against Venezuela, including AEI and the Heritage Foundation.
Maduro is an awful person and even worse politician, whose efforts to bankroll himself and his family at the expense of the country is something we should be disgusted with. Oh wait, this is Maduro we’re
talking about, right?
Excellent reporting on an important player. Paul Singer is a bad guy. Judd Legum brings the receipts. Big-time.