Gold has been a recurring theme in all three of Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns. In 2016, 2020, and 2024, it has been an integral part of a symbolic political branding strategy associated with prosperity, imperialism, and grandeur.
But in Trump’s second term, gold is truly flowing into the U.S. economy. According to Axios, the Venezuelan state-owned mining company signed a multimillion-dollar agreement to sell up to 1,000 kilograms of gold bars to the North American market.
Amid international market volatility and as a way to bolster the national economy and confidence in the dollar, the administration had already taken the initiative, during the first months of 2025, to purchase a large quantity of gold from countries like Switzerland. More than 600 tons were imported, according to press reports.
Official data showed that the country’s gold imports from the United States reached a three-month high in March. Specifically, they totaled 25.5 metric tons, compared to 12.1 tons in February.
The United States currently leads the ranking of countries with the largest gold reserves. The World Gold Council has stated that the country holds a total of 8,133.46 tons; double, for example, the reserves of countries like Germany, the European nation with the largest gold reserves — approximately 3,351.53 tons.
But this influx of gold didn’t happen by chance. It is directly connected to the Donroe Doctrine, which envisions the Western Hemisphere as a geographical area under the exclusive hegemony of the United States.
Barely two weeks had passed since Nicolás Maduro’s capture by the United States on January 3rd when the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, reported that gold mining in Venezuela had increased by 34.8% in the private sector and 81% in the public sector, according to the newspaper El País.
But how is such an increase possible? Have streams of gold begun to flow from the depths of Venezuelan territory starting in January 2026?
Not at all. The answer is simple: the gold that was previously extracted and diverted to the black market will now go to the formal market, where the United States will purchase it. Despite the inflammatory rhetoric surrounding Maduro’s return and the supposed sovereignty of Chavismo, Rodríguez remains the Trump administration’s employee of the month, as demonstrated by the agreement mentioned at the beginning of this article.
Doug Burgum, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, who arrived in Venezuela last Wednesday, helped to finalize it.
“This historic gold agreement,” a White House official told Reuters, is part of the assistance to Venezuela to “rebuild its mining sector, which will help U.S. industry obtain the minerals we need.”
The black market for gold in Venezuela has brought death to many local communities and drained the precious metal through shady deals between the Chavista regime and its partners with international anti-American actors.
In 2020, Human Rights Watch documented how residents of the Venezuelan state Bolívar (where the largest gold mining operations take place) suffered abuses at the hands of armed groups such as the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) and criminal organizations that control illegal gold mines, “largely with the acquiescence or participation of the [Venezuelan] government to maintain social control.”
Insight Crime reports that the 2020 global oil market crash and the increase in Southern Command operations in the Caribbean in late 2025 against drug trafficking had left the Maduro government with gold as its main industry to stay afloat.
This context coincided with “an accelerated drain on the gold reserves of the Central Bank of Venezuela, including the exchange of large quantities for parts to rebuild oil refineries with international allies such as Iran,” according to Insight Crime.
Now, gold is another key element in Washington’s renewed political relationship with Caracas — a relationship of victor and vanquished, respectively.
Following Maduro’s removal in January, the White House directs the South American country’s oil policy and manages the sale of Venezuelan crude on the international market. Now, reluctantly, the socialist dictatorship is paving the way with gold for the financial success of the administration that promised a golden era.
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