'Protection money': Nobel Prize winner says Trump's new moves are 'enriching his clique'

Donald Trump has been accused of "enriching his clique" by a Nobel Prize winner who says recent administration actions are attempts at "glorifying" the president.

Paul Krugman suggested Trump is using Venezuela and Greenland as a chance to bolster not the country, but himself and his inner circle. Writing in his Substack, the award-winning economist claimed, "Add in the cost of munitions expended during the Maduro abduction, and the whole adventure has surely cost more than a billion dollars."

"Moreover, the meter keeps ticking: since Chavistas are still in power, Trump has to keep forces nearby in order to intimidate them to honor agreements. But Trump doesn’t care: The military expenses are the little people’s problem."

"The bottom line is that to understand what Trump is doing around the world you must disabuse yourself of the notion that any of it is about serving America. It’s all about glorifying himself and enriching his clique."

Krugman also noted Trump had been "remarkably transparent" about his "looting" of Venezuela and their oil. He added, "Trump has been remarkably transparent about his goals in Venezuela: It’s all about looting. That is, he wants to seize the country’s oil wealth on behalf of himself and his clique."

"Some people, notably María Corina Machado, leader of Venezuela’s opposition, have been surprised that Trump shows no interest in restoring democracy. But why would he? He’s unable to enrich himself personally in democracies like Canada and Denmark. But a repressive regime like Venezuela is willing to pay him protection money."

The economist has since questioned the value of the "millions of barrels" of oil Trump is proposing to bring into the United States, suggesting the value would hardly make a dent for the economy.

He wrote, "But suppose that this one-time gift of oil is real. Trump would have you believe that it’s a big deal — MILLIONS of barrels."

"But that amount of oil has a market value in the range of $2 billion, which is not a big number for the United States. In fact, it’s less than 0.01 percent of GDP. And in terms of US oil consumption, that’s about 2 days worth of oil."