Trump Administration Announces Venezuela Oil Deal, Space Academy Commission and Other Actions

The Trump administration announced a wide range of actions during the final week of August, including what it described as a major oil agreement involving Venezuela, continued U.S. military operations in the Strait of Hormuz, plans for a federal space academy and new measures involving the nation’s power grid and beef imports.

A White House weekly briefing characterized the Venezuela agreement as the “biggest oil deal in world history,” saying the United States secured majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan oil reserves through an arrangement involving the U.S. government, Venezuela’s interim government and private businesses.

According to the administration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth worked with Venezuelan Interim President Delcy Rodriguez on the agreement.

The briefing says the transaction comes at no cost to U.S. taxpayers and more than doubles American oil reserves. The administration also projects that increasing the available oil supply will lower gasoline prices over the long term.

Those claims and projections are presented by the administration in its weekly report; the document does not provide the underlying agreement or independent analysis of its expected effects.

The administration also provided an update Aug. 28 on U.S. operations in the Strait of Hormuz, saying American forces are controlling passage through the key international shipping route.

According to the White House account, U.S. naval forces have cleared Iranian mines from international shipping lanes and turned away 75 vessels attempting to breach a blockade since it resumed in July.

The administration reported that nearly 1,500 commercial ships carrying about 750 million barrels of crude oil have traveled through the strait during that period. It also said no Iranian oil has been exported through the passage since the blockade began and estimated Iran is losing approximately $13 billion in revenue each month.

The briefing said oil exports from other Gulf countries have recovered to about two-thirds of their pre-operation levels.

Space policy was another major focus of the week.

On Aug. 28, President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a Presidential Commission on the United States Space Academy.

The commission, chaired by the NASA administrator, will develop recommendations for a proposed NASA-led federal academy intended to prepare Americans for careers in the military, civilian and commercial space sectors.

The proposal calls for combining technical education with leadership development and public service. The commission will consider the academy’s governance, curriculum, admissions requirements, possible service obligations for graduates and a process for selecting a permanent location.

The academy itself has not yet been established. The commission marks the start of a planning process that may require additional presidential approval and congressional action before a federal institution can begin operating.

The initiative is also tied to the administration’s goal of enabling more than 1,000 U.S. space launches annually by 2030.

Earlier in the week, Trump declared a national emergency regarding the security of the nation’s bulk power system.

The Aug. 26 executive order cited concerns about foreign governments and other foreign actors creating or exploiting cybersecurity weaknesses in U.S. electrical infrastructure.

According to the administration, the order generally prohibits certain foreign-produced bulk-power equipment and related software. The Secretary of Energy was directed to develop rules for carrying out the policy.

The administration also pointed to an earlier action that it says preserved approximately 17,000 megawatts of generating capacity, enough to supply about 12.75 million homes.

Another Aug. 26 action focused on food prices.

Trump signed a proclamation temporarily expanding imports of lean beef trimmings at lower tariff rates. The 90-day measure takes effect Sept. 1 and allows up to 100,000 tons per month.

Lean beef trimmings are commonly blended with domestic beef to produce ground beef. The administration projects the temporary measure could increase the overall beef supply by roughly 10 percent compared with current projections.

The White House attributed current supply pressures partly to a U.S. cattle herd it says is at its lowest level in 75 years. It cited drought, wildfire-related feed shortages and restrictions on live cattle imports from Mexico intended to prevent the spread of New World screwworm.

Immigration enforcement also figured prominently in the administration’s weekly report.

The briefing said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made nearly 50,000 arrests in July, describing that as the highest monthly total of Trump’s second term.

It also said southern border apprehensions are 94 percent below monthly averages during the Biden administration and reported 15 consecutive months without releases.

The State Department, according to the briefing, is also pursuing visa revocations that could affect as many as 200,000 foreign nationals.

The administration further reported terrorism-related action involving Portland Antifa groups, alleging connections between those groups, Hamas, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The weekly briefing does not provide the underlying evidence supporting those allegations.

Federal contracting was another area highlighted during the week. According to the administration, the General Services Administration identified more than $13 billion in suspected fraud involving approximately 1,000 federal contractors.

On Aug. 27, Trump also signed an executive order directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” The order directs the Interior Department to update federal references to the lake within 30 days.

The administration cited U.S. spending on Great Lakes environmental programs and its role in providing icebreaking vessels as reasons for the change.

That same day marked Karoline Leavitt’s final day as White House press secretary. The administration described her tenure as historic because she was the youngest person to hold the position.

The collection of announcements reflects an unusually broad week of administration activity, spanning energy, national security, immigration, space exploration, food prices and federal contracting.

Several of the most significant assertions in the weekly briefing — including the scale and terms of the Venezuela oil agreement, estimates of Iranian revenue losses and allegations involving domestic groups and foreign terrorist organizations — are administration claims for which supporting documentation was not included in the briefing.