Trump says U.S. has sold more than $13 billion of Venezuela oil since Maduro’s capture

President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. has collected more than $13 billion from the sale of Venezuelan crude oil since the overthrow of former President Nicolás Maduro.

The U.S. seized control of Venezuela’s oil exports after capturing Maduro in a military raid on Jan. 3. Trump was responding to a question about a Financial Times‘ report that estimated how much money his administration had collected from the sales.

“$13 billion from Venezuela? I think even more than that,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to Michigan to tour a General Motors’ facility. “We’ve paid for that war many times over.”

Trump said the money is used to run Venezuela. “We’re taking in a lot of money — billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela,” Trump said.

The U.S. has largely left the Venezuelan government in place after ousting Maduro. Washington has been closely cooperating with interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who served as vice president under Maduro.

Democrats in Congress have pressed the administration to disclose how much money it has collected from the sales, how the funds are spent, and how the program is monitored.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Semafor in an April interview that the U.S. had sold around 150 million barrels of Venezuelan oil since January.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress in June that the oil sales are audited by KPMG. The money is held in a Citibank account, Rubio said.

“It’s an ongoing audit, so it’s not a once-a-year audit, it’s on every expenditure, every single disbursement is audited by KPMG,” Rubio told Congress.

The Trump administration initially deposited $500 million in sales to an account in Qatar that was controlled by the U.S. government, Wright said in February. The U.S. subsequently set up a Treasury account and stopped sending money to the Qatar account, he said.

State Department official Michael Kozak told Congress in April that around $3 billion had been disbursed from the Treasury account. Kozak said the money was used to pay the salaries of Venezuela’s government workers, buy supplies for the nation’s oil industry and other approved uses.

Rubio authorizes the disbursement of the funds under an executive order issued by Trump on Jan. 9. The president’s order states that the money is the property of the Venezuelan government held in a custodial capacity by the U.S.