Florida Republican is caught deleting post bashing Trump’s oil deal with Venezuela… before embarrassing U-turn
Florida Republican congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar was caught deleting a social media post that criticised Donald Trump's oil deal with Venezuela, before replacing it with a message praising the same agreement. Salazar, whose Miami-Dade constituency includes many Hispanic voters with personal experience of socialist and communist rule, had been a vocal critic of Venezuela's interim leader Delcy Rodríguez, making the reversal notable and somewhat embarrassing for her.
On Saturday evening, Salazar posted on her official government X account that any oil deal with Venezuela's "interim regime" would expire the day Trump left office, accusing the government of "buying time" and having "stolen American investments". Roughly an hour later the post was removed and replaced on her personal political account with a far more positive message calling the deal "a great deal for the United States and the Venezuelan people", while still taking a swipe at Rodríguez as "the wrong person" for the arrangement. The U-turn follows Trump's announcement on Friday of what he called the "biggest oil deal in world history", securing control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan reserves, which he said would refill depleted US strategic reserves and lower petrol prices, with no cost to American taxpayers.
- Salazar deleted a post criticising Trump's Venezuela oil deal
- She replaced it with a post praising the same deal
- Deal secures over 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves
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Salazar's Miami district has a large Hispanic population, including many people who fled or lived under socialist or communist governments in Latin America, particularly Venezuela and Cuba. As a result, she has built a reputation as a firm critic of Venezuela's government, including its interim leader Delcy Rodríguez, and her constituents tend to expect that stance from her.
The wider story concerns an oil agreement announced by Donald Trump involving Venezuela's vast crude reserves, which he presented as a major economic win for the United States, including cheaper petrol and replenished national fuel stockpiles. Because the deal involves dealing with a government Salazar has long opposed, it puts Republicans like her in the position of weighing loyalty to Trump's policy against their usual criticism of Venezuela's leadership.
Social media posts from politicians, especially on official accounts, are treated as public record, so deleting or altering one is often noticed and can raise questions about political consistency. This context matters for understanding why a changed message from Salazar attracted attention.