Donald Trump said the US would impose a 25 per cent tariff on all imports from any country that buys oil from Venezuela, a move that could roil crude markets and sharply raise levies on goods from China and India.

The announcement on Monday came days ahead of the president’s planned unveiling of a new tariff regime on US trading partners and amid a chaotic trade policy rollout marked by reversals and U-turns.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was imposing the tariff for “numerous reasons”, alleging that “Venezuela has purposefully and deceitfully sent to the United States, undercover, tens of thousands of high level, and other, criminals, many of whom are murderers and people of a very violent nature”.

Venezuela exported 660,000 barrels a day of crude globally last year, according to consultancy Kpler. China, which has been hit with 20 per cent tariffs from Trump this year, is among the top buyers, alongside India, Spain and Italy.

Speaking to reporters later on Monday, Trump said the 25 per cent tariffs on buyers of Venezuelan crude would come in addition to any existing levies.

“That’s on top of existing tariffs — yes,” the president said.

The US imported about 230,000 b/d from Venezuela in 2024, making the South American nation its fourth-biggest supplier last year.

The latest escalation of Trump’s trade war comes days after Caracas agreed to begin receiving planeloads of deported migrants from the US, in a concession to the US president.

The move risks stoking turmoil in the oil market, something the White House has been keen to avoid in an attempt to prevent supply disruption from raising petrol prices for American motorists. Brent crude rose 1.3 per cent following the announcement.

“If we see Venezuelan supply coming out of the market, that means less global supply, which means oil prices go up,” said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at Kpler. “That gets passed on to prices of the pump, which is the opposite of President Trump’s goals.”

The US president referred to Monday’s unprecedented move as a “secondary tariff” and said it would take effect from April 2, which he has dubbed “liberation day”, when reciprocal levies on other countries will also come into force.

Analysts said countries were likely to cut imports rather than risk the tariffs.

“We have never [before] seen secondary tariffs but a literal interpretation of Trump’s Truth Social statement suggests it could lead to a significant disruption to Venezuelan exports,” said Fernando Ferreira, director of geopolitical risk at consultancy Rapidan Energy. 

“Absent clarification from the administration on potential exemptions, I suspect most countries will self-sanction to avoid across-the-board tariffs on all exports to the US,” he added.

The US Treasury recently cancelled Chevron’s licence to operate in Venezuela, which is under broad sanctions, ordering the California-based oil group to wind down its operations within 30 days.

The Treasury on Monday extended the deadline for Chevron to wind down its oil production in the country until May 27.

Chevron’s licence allowed it to export about 200,000 b/d last year, which Venezuela’s democratic opposition said contributed to funding repression by President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

Chevron declined to comment on either Monday’s tariff announcement or the Treasury extension. The Venezuelan government did not respond to a request for comment.

As part of Venezuela’s agreement to resume accepting deportees from the US, a flight carrying 199 people landed near Caracas on Sunday.

Trump has in recent weeks pushed to deport hundreds of alleged members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, which the US has designated a terrorist organisation.

In his Truth Social post on Monday, the president referenced the gang and said Venezuela had been “very hostile to the United States and the Freedoms which we espouse”.

Earlier this month, the US deported some alleged gang members to El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele had agreed to hold them in the country’s “very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars”.

The Department of Justice on Monday said it would deport three alleged Tren de Aragua members to Chile.

The Maduro government, which has often used the exodus of its citizens as leverage in negotiations with Washington, said migrants had been “kidnapped” and sent to El Salvador.

Ryan Berg, director of the Americas programme at Washington think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, said if the tariffs hit all countries that have companies with business in Venezuela’s oil sector, they could further isolate Maduro as he seeks to consolidate power.

“This tariff could actually have a significant impact on making companies exit from Venezuela’s oil market,” Berg said. “We’re in entirely uncharted territory right now.”

The Trump administration received pointed questions from a judge over how it’s implementing a rarely-used wartime law to deport Venezuelans suspected of being Tren de Aragua gang members.

A president last invoked the Alien Enemies Act after the attack on Pearl Harbor, designating Japanese, German and Italian nationals as “alien enemies” during World War II.

“Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than what has happened here,” D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Millett said during a hearing at the court on Monday. “And they had hearing boards before they were removed.”

“People weren’t given notice, they weren’t told where they were going,” she said about the removal of Venezuelans and others to El Salvador earlier this month.

Lawyers with the Justice Department are asking the appeals court in Washington to overturn a temporary restraining order blocking deportations under the act put in place by district court Judge James Boasberg. A ruling to lift the temporary pause on deportations, or keep it in place, is likely to prompt an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The fight over the rarely used wartime power has become central to Trump’s immigration crackdown agenda and his efforts to stretch the power of the executive branch.

The panel of three judges did not deliver a decision from the bench but could do so in the coming days.

Judge Millett appeared sympathetic to the arguments of immigrants rights groups who sought to block immediate deportations, but it is unclear which way Judge Karen Henderson, a George W. Bush appointee, was leaning.

According to court documents, if the judge lifts the pause, some 258 people would likely be placed in removal proceedings under the Alien Enemies Act for being alleged members of Tren de Aragua.

DOJ says pause was “enormous intrusion” on president’s power

Justice Department lawyers argued that Boasberg’s order to pause removals under the act is an “unprecedented and enormous intrusion” on the president’s power and that this type of “second-guessing” could potentially hurt the United States’ current and future deals with other countries. The U.S. has negotiated with El Salvador and other countries to take in deportees.

Drew Ensign, the government attorney leading the case, received pointed questions about how it could work for people detained or even removed under the Alien Enemies Act to bring up individual petitions to contest allegations they are members of the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang.

“The problem here is that they are challenging implementation of the proclamation in a way that never gave anyone a chance to say, ‘I’m not covered,” Millett, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said. She said prior cases clearly show the government needs to give people that due process.

Due process “can’t be an unlawful intrusion of the president’s powers. The president has to comply with the constitution and laws like everybody else,” she said.

Judge Justin Walker, who was appointed by Trump in 2020, was sympathetic to the government’s argument that those who are currently detained under the Alien Enemies Act should contest their arrests through a habeas petition, which is how someone can legally argue they are being unlawfully detained.

Walker suggested that the plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward, should have filed in Texas as opposed to in D.C. The five Venezuelan plaintiffs that first filed the lawsuit are held in Texas, even though their lawyers argued that they now are also representing hundreds of people potentially subject to the act nationwide.

Still, Ensign said that should the judges side with the government and lift the pause on deportations, the government would not have a limitation and not be required to provide notice for those deported under the Alien Enemies Act.

Lower DC court keeps pause on deportations in place

Earlier in the day, Boasberg issued an order to keep in place his 14-day pause on the administration’s ability to deport anyone under the act.

Boasberg denied the government’s attempt to vacate his temporary restraining order, noting that immigrant rights groups were likely to win the argument in court that the men deported to El Salvador should have gotten individualized hearings to determine whether the act applied to them.

“Because the named Plaintiffs dispute that they are members of Tren de Aragua, they may not be deported until a court has been able to decide the merits of their challenge,” Boasberg wrote in his order. “Nor may any members of the provisionally certified class be removed until they have been given the opportunity to challenge their designations as well.”

Boasberg said the pause on the flights does not prevent the government from making arrests, or even deporting those it suspects of being members of Tren de Aragua.

He gave the immigrant rights groups until Wednesday to file a preliminary injunction, which could pave the way for an even longer court-ordered pause on the use of the wartime powers.

Boasberg also direct Trump’s cabinet secretaries to decide by Tuesday whether they were going to invoke a privilege that would allow them to not disclose information about the deportation flights.

Boasberg and the DOJ went back and forth over whether the administration ignored the judge’s order to not use the act to send 137 Venezuelans to El Salvador on March 15.