"Why does the US need to import more oil?"

It doesn't, and it likely won't, but maybe that's why gas prices have gotten to a low of 2.43 a gallon here recently, and why they were below to slightly above the normal 3.15 to 3.30 holiday time period, if they were really brining it to the national reserve like Trump said. Usually the price goes back up after the holidays, given a couple weeks or so afterward. Maybe they wanted to empty the reserves for the expected delivery after the operation, ultimately, that oil will go off to Africa to be refined into natural gas and shipped off to Europe. Might just be it was originally planned that way but Trump got sick of Americans complaining about the cost of things, so he took an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.
You have to realize China really doesn't have a dog in this game except for being the beneficiary of cleaner fuel source, which this is all about, but, on the other hand, not to put all it's eggs in one basket, hence why it keeps building new coal burning operations. They agree, along with Russia, of this new global realignment to clean energy, and natural gas is cleaner than coal. Which Larry Fink put an emphasis on. Really why the US needs Venezuela oil is because no one country can provide over four billion people market in Asian and European nations conversion to natural gas. Trump, back in his first term was selling our oil to China in the millions of gallons, first time ever in our history. China was taking it and having it refined in India, before it went off to Europe, that's the way it was first initially done because India had already built 8 new state of the art refineries in anticipation of the Europe transition, the US refineries in Africa weren't up and running yet, I think the last one came online at the beginning of 2025. They are sneaky little f^^ks, on how they've been planning this for years. Africa and India were picked for refineries because of their cheap pool of labor, and lack of regulations. At first, because the US built one so close to the Red Sea, I thought they'd get the oil from SA, but evidently, as we can see now, that's not how it will transpire. SA will likely get their own share of the market, just like Russia is being given theirs and the main pipeline into China is done. The US will get their share also but not at the expense of the American people, which is why gas was so costly under Biden, the EU transition was shaping up, the new pipeline infrastructure was done, and the transition was on. Most that oil went on to India before going off to Europe. The US has barely the infrastructure left to supply the US market let alone a new market for Europe. China and Asian countries are nowhere near ready yet for this transition, I would be thinking they wanted to get Europe online first, then proceed forward, but China isn't a country to take anything for granted, and I highly doubt even after all the infrastructure is in place, they'll never be stupid enough to allow for totally dependency of their energy supplies on others by dismantling their coal energy facilities. Once you go there, it allows you to be held captive to others. On the other side of the equation, Maduro just wasn't going to go along with the new global realignment, one regional power dictating to other regional players. The lack of outrage by other superpowers seems to suggest they also thought he needed to be taken out of the equation of this new realignment. I said I didn't think or was under the impression it was a coincidence the VP was in Russia when this went down, and I highly doubt Trump said to her, give me the jewels or else, it was more like if you let me come in and take him out, I'll give you jewels the likes of jewels you've never seen before. That's more along the lines of how he operates. Just like he told the story of wanting to build the UN's new building, he said give me the job and I'll give you parquet flooring and marble walls.

Why does JD wear eyeliner? Because he's a closet gay, I just was taking a guess at that one after having watched him speak before. Someone came back with how he wrote in his Hillbilly Elegy that as a child he thought he was gay. Personally, I think back upon how he described having met Thiel at that university and being overwhelmed by his speech. If you ever heard Thiel talk, it's hardly overwhelming, and quite tidiest to listen to him stop frequently to think hard about how he wants to phrase something, which causes stutters of the same words until he formats how something should be phrased, and that overwhelming was more or could be more contributed to his admiration for a man who is openly gay and successful. Though with the later concerning Thiel, despisingly.