WSJ What’s News - Trump Considers Letting Chevron Keep Pumping Venezuelan Oil

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

A.M. Edition for Mar. 20. President Trump is weighing a plan to extend Chevron's license to pump oil in Venezuela while also making it harder for countries like China to get a foothold there. Plus, the U.S. Agency for International Development could soon get a major overhaul, according to a memo viewed by the Journal. And, WSJ reporter Ben Dummett explains how Trump’s order to end diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across the U.S. are also being felt across the Atlantic. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to own part of the company that makes your favorite burger? Now you can. With partial shares from TD Direct Investing, you can own less than one full share, so expensive stocks are within reach. Learn more at td.com slash partial shares. TD, ready for you. Chevron makes headway in lobbying the White House to keep pumping oil in Venezuela. Plus Attorney General Pam Bondi pledges federal prosecutions against vandals targeting Tesla, calling attacks on vehicles and company property domestic terrorism.

And we'll look at how efforts to crack down on corporate DEI in the U.S. are rippling across the Atlantic. Whereas Europeans previously dictated what U. what US companies had to fall in terms of policies in order to sell goods into Europe, that's being reversed now to a degree. It's Thursday, March 20th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. We are exclusively reporting that President Trump is considering a plan to extend Chevron's license to pump oil in Venezuela and make it harder for other countries to get a foothold

there. Trump expressed openness to reversing his recent decision to order the company to wind down its Venezuela operation next month during a Wednesday meeting at the White House with Chevron CEO Mike Worth and other oil industry executives, according to people familiar with the discussion. Journal correspondent Jenny Strasburg says that comes after months of counterarguments from hard-line Venezuela critics like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Walz.

What we see here is Chevron making some headway in its argument that if the U.S. were to impose tariffs or other financial penalties on countries buying oil from Venezuela, not the U.S., but China, etc., then that could fortify Chevron and allow that oil to continue flowing to the U.S., which of course is very much a part of this administration's talking points. To keep oil flowing, keep America supplied with the energy it needs. The White House didn't respond to requests for comment. Greenpeace has been ordered to pay more than $600 million to Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The lawsuit centered around months-long protests back in 2016 in which Greenpeace, Native American tribal groups, and other activists camped out to block construction of the pipeline that transfers crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois. Energy Transfer alleged that the environmental activist group, as well as its international and funding entities, trespassed and caused damages on its property and published false statements about the pipeline. Greenpeace has denied the allegations, saying it would appeal the judgment to the North Dakota Supreme Court.

The U.S. Agency for International Development could soon get a major overhaul. According to a memo viewed by the journal, the agency, which had been dismantled by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, would be renamed the U.S. Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance and fall under the control of the State Department, with a mandate to help enhance national security and counter adversaries like China. The memo stated that expensive programs that didn't provide strong returns to taxpayers should be scrapped and that those that remain shouldn't be solely philanthropic, but should advance American security, strategic and commercial interests.

It's unclear whether a federal judge's ruling this week that Doge's dismantling of U.S. aid was unconstitutional would impact the new plans. A State Department spokesperson said that, quote, any changes to the structure of U.S. aid will be done in consultation with Congress and will be subject to congressional notification. And the Trump administration is ratcheting up its campaign to label attacks against Tesla property as domestic terrorism. Speaking to Fox News last night, Attorney General Pam Bondi described the string of vandalism and arson attacks on Tesla dealerships and charging stations as politically motivated

against Elon Musk because of his work to cut government jobs and spending. We believe these are organized years and these are not individuals out there throughout the country doing this on their own. They're targeting Tesla owners, they're targeting Tesla dealerships, they're targeting Elon Musk who is out there trying to save our country and it will not be tolerated. We are coming after you, we will find you. Bondi added that the Justice Department would pursue federal charges that can carry long, mandatory minimum prison sentences.

Coming up, the Trump administration's DEI crackdown goes global. We'll look at how European businesses are shaking up their diversity policies and recap other news moving markets after the break. Shortly after taking office, President Trump ordered an end to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the U.S. government. But crucially, the push to stamp out DEI doesn't just extend to the public sector. And as journal reporter Ben Duhman is here to discuss,

nor does it end in the U.S. Ben, the U.S. government is expected to scrutinize a lot more companies in the private sector over DEI practices. Tell us what you've learned. Ben Duhman, Journalist, U.S. Government of the United States of America Yeah, that's right. In May, the attorney general has been instructed to issue a report that will identify companies in the private sector that they deem have promoted practices

that they see as illegal and discriminatory through the DEI policies. So that's created, you know, essentially we've talked to some lawyers and they said that that's triggered an avalanche of inquiries from companies just trying to figure out, you know, how to navigate this problem and avoid being on the list. This story focuses on European companies that have global operations,

i.e. big operations in the U.S. And so what's happening is they don't want to be in a situation where they've implemented DEI policies that find themselves running af file of changes in the US rules and that resulting in a sort of backlash from employees or customers in Europe who are supportive of DEI and by the same token, customers in the US that may take a different view. It sounds like a tricky one to thread.

How are some big European businesses trying to navigate that? Well, they're doing a couple of things. In the case of Aldi, for example, which is a big discount grocer based in Germany, but has large operations in the US, particularly in the southern US, earlier this year, they changed their US website to eliminate reference to diversity and inclusion. But on their websites in parts of Europe where they operate, diversity and inclusion is still promoted, is something important. And Santander, for example, a big Spanish-based bank.

Similarly, if you look at their latest annual report, they are saying now that senior employees that work for Santare in countries, they don't specify the US, but they say countries that have different policies regarding issues like DEI, those managers, their bonuses won't be determined based on the number of women they promote into senior managerial or executive roles. Whereas bonuses will continue to be influenced outside the US in part by their ability to promote women into senior executive positions. Let me just quickly say that representatives for Aldi and a Santander spokesman declined

to comment on your reporting. But Ben, it's really fascinating stuff there. We've previously talked about ex-US as a term in the world of investing, but it sounds like that is now an HR term as well, getting the US basically carved out of some global policies. What do you make of that? What's going on with the US and how it's impacting Europe, you know, it's kind of reversal of what's known as the Brussels effect with policies introduced by Europe that because of the size of the European marketplace, which is comprised of about 450 million people, their policies for

a long time heavily influenced the way companies, for example, in the US did things in order to make sure they abided by the rules of Europe in order to sell their goods into this region. So it just basically speaks to the fact that we live in a sort of a global marketplace and as a result, major decisions by huge economic blocs, whether it's Europe or the US, that really pivot away from what has been going on for some time is going to put companies on edge, is going to create a lot of confusion, is going to create diverging policies, and as a result, it's going to take time to figure out what's right, what's wrong. Ben Dummett writes about dealmaking from the Wall Street Journal's London Bureau. Ben,

thank you so much for joining us and bringing us this story. Thanks. I appreciate it. And in market news today, SoftBank has inked a deal to buy US chip designer Ampere Computing Holdings for $6.5 billion. CEO Masayoshi San said the deal deepens SoftBank's commitment to AI innovation in the United States, which comes as the Japanese investment firm is starting a giant data center project in the US. The Ampere acquisition is expected to be completed later this year, subject to regulatory approvals. We are exclusively reporting that crypto exchange Kraken is nearing a $1.5 billion deal to buy

the futures trading platform NinjaTrader. People familiar with the matter say the deal could be announced as soon as this morning and is aimed at helping Kraken to expand its user base and move into other asset classes. And the People's Bank of China has kept benchmark lending rates unchanged following the Federal Reserve in holding rates steady. China's one-year loan prime rate is at 3.1 percent and the five-year rate remains at 3.6 percent. The Bank of England is also widely expected to keep its key interest rate steady at 4.5 percent when it issues its latest rate decision at 8 a.m. Eastern.

And that's it for What's News for this Thursday morning. Today's show was produced by Daniel Bach and Kate Bullivant with supervising producer Sandra Kilhoff and I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.