The North Korean Threat Is Good for the Doomsday Prepper Business - TIME Business

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The North Korean Threat Is Good for the Doomsday Prepper Business Posted: 11 Aug 2017 02:33 PM PDT President Trump’s inflammatory warnings to North Korea appear to have unsettled the stock market as fears of nuclear war likely triggered a global sell-off this week. But far away from Wall Street, the looming threat of the apocalypse is good business. Larry Hall, the project manager and owner of the Survival Condo Project, is one of the few who’s benefiting in the wake of tension between the U.S. and North Korea. The Project comprises of two underground silos equipped with nine-foot thick blast doors, diesel generators, a movie theater, indoor swimming pool and luxury condos in a complex somewhere around Salinas, Kansas. The exact location can’t be revealed due to “security reasons.” “The North Korea situation got us a 40% spike in inquires,” Hall said. On a monthly basis, he estimates the condos get about 300 inquires total. Over the past 10 days, he received roughly 200, he noted. “Ever since I started building the bunkers I’ve noticed that any time there’s a natural disaster that a bunch of people are worried about, we get a whole bunch of calls — the 2012 Mayan [calendar] thing, the Fukushima tsunami in Japan, major earthquakes, when Trump got elected.” Hall purchased the first of the abandoned silos in 2008 and converted them into fifteen-floor, nuclear bomb-resistant apartment complex by 2012. Every unit in the first silo was sold with the exception of one, he told the New Yorker in January, and that success has led to the development of a new condo, which is a little over halfway completed, he said. It could house up to 28 units depending if they sell full, half or penthouse apartments. “We thought it would take another year to sell it out by September, and we still have units available, but roughly 60% has sold out already,” he said. Because of the luxury amenities and advertised $3 million sales price, the Survival Condos attract affluent guests. “These are people you’d see on the Forbes list as the richest people in America,” Hall said. “There’s famous people that are definitely recognizable.” But the fortified homes aren’t just for dire situations like war with North Korea, he said. “We didn’t build this project for doomsday. We built if for Superstorm Sandy. 9.0 earthquakes. Economic collapse. Food shortages. It’s all stuff that can happen any time of the year, the whole range of the bell curve,” he explained. “The time to get a bunker is when you don’t need it,” Bell added. “You can’t just wait for a catastrophe happen.”

American Allies and Adversaries Urge Caution on North Korea - New york times

American Allies and Adversaries Urge Caution on North Korea

World leaders expressed alarm on Friday at the bellicose language emanating from North Korea and the United States, but also some support for President Trump, as they sought to allay their citizens’ fears of a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula.

“I am convinced that a verbal escalation will not contribute to a resolution of the conflict,” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany told journalists in Berlin. “I also see no military resolution to the conflict.”

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said that Moscow was “very alarmed” by talk of pre-emptive military action by the United States. “Unfortunately, the rhetoric in Washington and Pyongyang is now starting to go over the top,” Mr. Lavrov said. “We still hope and believe that common sense will prevail.”

Among America’s allies, Australia was perhaps the most decisive in denouncing North Korea’s weapons program.

“We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States,” Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister, said in a statement, adding that Australia and the United States were “joined at the hip.”

European leaders, whose summer holidays had already been interrupted by political uncertainty, and who are usually occupied by the threat from a resurgent Russia, were focused on the Korean Peninsula.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany criticized the escalation of the war rhetoric between the United States and North Korea.© Clemens Bilan/European Pressphoto Agency Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany criticized the escalation of the war rhetoric between the United States and North Korea.

Ms. Merkel said diplomacy offered the only way out of the crisis. She did not single out Mr. Trump — with whom she has had a frosty relationship — for criticism, but she made clear that his language was not helpful.

“Germany will be intensively involved in any possible nonmilitary solutions, but I consider an escalation of words to be the wrong answer,” she said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Friday denied reports on state-controlled media that air defense units in the Russian Far East had been placed on high alert. Russia shares a short border with North Korea, near Vladivostok, a Pacific port city.

Speaking at a youth forum east of Moscow, Mr. Lavrov, the foreign minister, said Moscow was “very worried” by fiery declarations in Washington and Pyongyang.

“Talk of the need to carry out a pre-emptive strike at North Korea, Pyongyang’s talk of the need to strike at Guam island at the U.S. military base, this has been continual, and we are very worried by this,” Mr. Lavrov said.

He said that Russia, which last weekend joined the United States and China in voting at the United Nations Security Council for severe new sanctions against Pyongyang, did not accept North Korea as a nuclear power. But he said it was up to the United States, as the more powerful country, to take the first step.

“I believe when it actually comes to a fight, the one that is stronger and smarter should take the first step away from the dangerous line,” Mr. Lavrov said. “Together with China, Russia offered a very reasonable plan providing for the ‘double freeze.’ Kim Jong-un freezes any nuclear tests, any ballistic missile launches, while the U.S. and South Korea freeze large-scale military exercises, which are constantly used by North Korea as an excuse to conduct tests.”

Russian experts worry that while the United States is unlikely to launch an all-out military attack on North Korea, it could make a limited strike. This, warned Vladimir I. Batyuk, of the Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies in Moscow, would shatter the united front that Russia, China and the United States displayed in the sanctions vote at the United Nations.

“If the Americans apply military force against the D.P.R.K., they will clearly lose whatever political support Moscow and Beijing have provided so far for U.S. policy toward North Korea,” Mr. Batyuk told Kommersant, a Russian newspaper, using the initials for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the formal name of the North.

Vladimir Frolov, an independent foreign policy specialist, contrasted Russia’s “passive” response to the risk of nuclear war near its eastern border with the “hyperactive Russian diplomacy on Syria and Ukraine.”

Writing in Republic, an online Russian journal, Mr. Frolov complained that Moscow was engaged in “geopolitical outsourcing,” leaving China and the United States to calm a grave danger on its own border. The approach “works for now, but is not a very good look for the Russian leadership,” he said.

The leaders of France, America’s oldest ally, and Britain, America’s closest ally, did not offer fresh comments on the tensions, but Jeremy Corbyn, the far-left leader of the opposition Labour Party in Britain, said war would be catastrophic.

“The idea that anyone can contemplate using nuclear weapons at any stage against anybody is unthinkable,” Mr. Corbyn, who has advocated that Britain give up its nuclear weapons, told Sky News. “There is no such thing as an isolated nuclear attack. It will kill millions on both sides of the Korean border and, of course, in neighboring countries.”

Damian Green, Britain’s first secretary of state, said during a visit to Scotland that “the sensible way for people to proceed is to work through the U.N. process.”

He added, “That’s what the British government has been supporting and will continue to support.”

Several allies of the United States, while expressing dismay about the heated language, said Washington was correct to condemn North Korea’s weapons program.

“The international society cannot allow North Korea to further develop its nuclear and ballistic missile program,” Denmark’s foreign minister, Anders Samuelsen, said in a statement. “This would enable North Korea to terrorize the region — and beyond — even more. We are obviously not going to accept that threat. It must be stopped.”

Mr. Samuelsen added: “What we are witnessing at the moment is an escalation of rhetoric on North Korea. One could argue about the choice of words, but it’s important that North Korea accepts that the international society is putting its foot down.”

New Zealand’s foreign minister, Gerry Brownlee, re-emphasized the need for a strong diplomatic response, saying any pre-emptive action would be a mistake.

“Committing to an aggressive response now — while encouraging all involved to avoid escalation — is not a position we want to take,” Mr. Brownlee said, according to local reports.

Tom Plant, director of proliferation and nuclear policy at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, said European experts would generally agree that “a diplomatic resolution is the only feasible and sensible resolution” to the tensions.

Mr. Plant said he hoped that, behind the scenes, diplomats from the two sides were meeting in private to defuse the crisis.

“There are still very competent people in the State Department and in the White House capable of suggesting and conducting that course of action,” Mr. Plant said, adding that he was not confident that Mr. Trump himself would pursue such a course.

Tom Tugendhat, a former British military officer and the new head of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, compared the situation to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.

“Kennedy and Khrushchev showed that nuclear tensions can be unwound by measured and thoughtful action,” Mr. Tugendhat told journalists. “I look forward to the U.S. and North Korea working with regional partners, including China, to reduce tensions and end the nuclear brinkmanship.”

Sometimes, 140 characters just aren’t enough. trump held 2 press conferences - New York times

WASHINGTON — Sometimes, 140 characters just aren’t enough.

Seven days into a 17-day “working vacation” in Bedminster, N.J., President Trump unburdened himself during two lengthy, impromptu news conferences on Thursday, eagerly ping-ponging through the litany of domestic and foreign policy issues that have consumed his administration for weeks.

Ignoring his press secretary, who was holding a “One More Question” sign in the back of the room, Mr. Trump doubled down on his threats to North Korea, shrugged off Russia’s ejections of hundreds of American embassy staff, defended his abrupt decision on transgender troops and claimed he had never considered firing the special counsel — directly contradicting his own private statements to aides and friends.

In sometimes rambling answers filled with words like “fantastic” and “great” and “biggest” and “finest,” the president bragged about everything from the state of the economy, the size of his nuclear arsenal, the breadth of his achievements and the increase in security at the border with Mexico.

He called Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, his national security adviser, “my friend” and “a very talented man.” (Mr. McMaster was sitting to Mr. Trump’s right.) But the president did not foreclose the idea that Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, should “step aside” if Republicans fail to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Altogether, the president dabbled in more than a dozen topics for reporters gathered at his golf club, each one generating newspaper headlines and chyrons on television.

Trump Reveals Exasperation With McConnell

President Trump criticized Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, for failed efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

After days of venting, on Twitter and in private, over the Senate’s failure to pass a health care repeal bill before the August recess, Mr. Trump was asked if Mr. McConnell should consider stepping down.

“I’ll tell you what,” Mr. Trump began, “if he doesn’t get repeal and replace done, and if he doesn’t get taxes done, meaning cuts and reform, and if he doesn’t get a very easy one to get done, infrastructure — if he doesn’t get them done, then you can ask me that question.”

Asked if that answer amounted to a yes or a no, Mr. Trump replied, “You can ask me the question. That means ask me that question. Let’s hope he gets it done.”

The comments were a remarkable acceleration of tensions between a president aggrieved at his lack of significant legislative accomplishments to date, and the lawmaker tasked with shepherding his agenda through a Republican-led Congress.

They also signaled a conspicuous desire from Mr. Trump, who often campaigned as a renegade outsider with few meaningful allegiances to either party, to again position himself as a crusader against Washington gridlock — even though he and his allies are now at the controls, grinding the gears.

The laconic Senate leader has strained all year to wrangle his narrow majority. Mr. McConnell has gotten little help from an often disengaged and policy-averse president whose habit of setting arbitrary (and often shifting) deadlines has frustrated senators for months.

Mr. McConnell’s team showed little appetite for a protracted feud. Antonia Ferrier, Mr. McConnell’s spokeswoman, issued a subdued comment in response about the “path forward” to repeal and replace the health care law and added, “But if he has any new statements today, I’ll be sure to send them along.”

Asked about Russia’s decision to force the United States Embassy in Moscow to slash its personnel by 755 people, Mr. Trump might have echoed the bipartisan outrage of other American leaders.

Instead, the president praised President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, expressing gratitude to a top adversary for effectively downsizing the American Embassy, saving United States taxpayers the cost of salaries.

“I want to thank him, because we’re trying to cut down on payroll, and as far as I’m concerned, I’m very thankful that he let go of a large number of people, because now we have a smaller payroll,” Mr. Trump said.

His comment was in keeping with his practice of not criticizing Mr. Putin — no matter how tense relations between Washington and Moscow have grown. Two weeks ago, Mr. Putin seized two American diplomatic properties and ordered the American diplomatic staff cut by more than half, retaliating for sanctions imposed by Congress to punish Russia’s meddling in last year’s presidential election in the United States.

“There’s no real reason for them to go back. So I greatly appreciate the fact that we’ve been able to cut our payroll of the United States. We’ll save a lot of money,” Mr. Trump said.

Asked whether he had considered firing Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating the Russian election meddling, Mr. Trump said that he had not.

“I haven’t given it any thought. Well, I’ve been reading about it from you people. You say, ‘Oh, I’m going to dismiss him.’ No, I’m not dismissing anybody. I mean, I want them to get on with the task.”

But the statements stood in contrast to what Mr. Trump has privately told people close to him in recent months. The president has discussed both the possibility of firing Mr. Mueller and his concerns that the investigation will undermine his presidency.

In June, one of Mr. Trump’s longtime friends, Christopher Ruddy, said in a television interview that Mr. Trump was considering firing Mr. Mueller.

Mr. Trump also characterized as tepid his relationship with Attorney General Jeff Sessions (“It’s fine”) and shared his reaction to reports that Mr. Mueller’s investigators searched the home of his former campaign chairman, Paul J. Manafort (“I thought it was pretty tough stuff to wake him up, perhaps his family was there”).

Meanwhile, Mr. Manafort — who had been represented by Reginald J. Brown of the law firm WilmerHale — announced that he was switching lawyers. “As of today, WilmerHale no longer represents Mr. Manafort,” a spokesman for Mr. Manafort said.

Mr. Trump said he had not spoken to Mr. Manafort “for a long time,” but “I’ve always found Paul Manafort to be a very decent man. He’s like a lot of other people, probably makes consultant fees from all over the place, who knows, I don’t know.”

The Justice Department’s investigation into possible links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia’s election interference has engulfed the White House in political and legal scrutiny.

Last month, Mr. Trump described Mr. Sessions as “beleaguered” and said that he would not have made him attorney general if he knew he was going to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

“It is what it is,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday of his relationship with Mr. Sessions. “It’s fine.”

Two weeks after declaring on Twitter that transgender people would be banned from serving in the military, Mr. Trump said that he is doing the United States military a “great favor.”

The Pentagon has made no move to expel personnel since the commander in chief first announced the ban. And the White House has yet to make public any formal guidance on how the Defense Department is supposed to turn Mr. Trump’s tweets into policy.

But Mr. Trump said that “it’s been a very confusing issue for the military, and I think I’m doing the military a great favor.” He declared that he has “great respect” for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and denied that his ban amounted to a betrayal after pledging to protect them during last year’s presidential campaign.

“I’ve had great support from that community,” Mr. Trump said. “I got a lot of votes.”

He said that the military is “working on it now,” adding, “I think I’m doing a lot of people a favor by coming out and just saying it.”

Defense officials said they were taken by surprise by Mr. Trump’s announcement on July 26. One administration official said the White House is considering urging transgender service members to retire early. But a defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said on Thursday that doing so might be difficult to defend in court.

— Helene Cooper

President Donald Trump on Friday issued his starkest warning yet against North Korea - Wall Street Journal

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in Bedminister, N.J., Thursday.

By Louise Radnofsky

Updated Aug. 11, 2017 8:29 a.m. ET

President Donald Trump on Friday issued his starkest warning yet against North Korea, saying that “military solutions” were “in place, locked and loaded” should Pyongyang “act unwisely.”

From his working vacation at his golf resort in Bedminister, N.J., the president made the warning on Twitter just before 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time, escalating his rhetoric beyond his declaration the previous day that a previous threat to hit North Korea with “fire and fury” should it threaten the U.S. wasn’t strong enough.

The president concluded the Friday tweet, “Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!”

A day before, Mr. Trump said rejected criticisms that his words had been too inflammatory. He repeated his exhortation to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to stop issuing threats and vowed to invest billions of dollars more in missile defense.

”They’ve been doing this to our country for a long time, for many years, and it’s about time that somebody stuck up for the people of this country and for the people of other countries,” Mr. Trump said Thursday, referring to North Korea’s threats. “So, if anything, maybe that statement wasn’t tough enough.”

The president’s comments escalated an exchange of threats between the U.S. and North Korea that have rattled markets and unnerved world leaders concerned about a nuclear-armed confrontation. U.S. stocks fell by nearly 1% on Thursday, for a third straight session.

Just an hour before Mr. Trump’s latest tweet, North Korea’s state media accused the U.S. president of “driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war,” pointing to his threats of war against the North.

Trump: ‘Fury’ Threat Maybe Not ‘Tough Enough’

Standoff Leaves China With Few Options

In a separate article published earlier in the day, North Korea said of U.S. war threats that “if the U.S. opened its eyes to...who its rival is, such stupid remarks would not have been made.”

“It is ridiculous that the U.S. warmongers are unaware of the fact that even a single shell dropped on the Korean Peninsula might lead to the outbreak of a new world war, a thermonuclear war,” the statement added.

The escalation began earlier in the week after Pyongyang defied pressure from United Nations sanctions, rejected American entreaties to consider talks and threatened to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. if militarily provoked. Mr. Trump responded with his warning that the country stop making threats or face “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

The exchanges have overshadowed a U.S. diplomatic effort that led to the unanimous passage of the sanctions at the U.N. last weekend and continued with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Asia this week. Mr. Trump’s threats have drowned out the more conciliatory rhetoric of Mr. Tillerson, who has said Washington doesn’t seek regime change and wants to pressure North Korea into disarmament talks.

—Jonathan Cheng in Seoul contributed to this article

Trump tweets slam Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell - Fox News

By Brooke Singman

Published August 10, 2017 Fox News

Sen. McConnell hits Trump for having ‘excessive expectations’

President Trump's Twitter assault on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell continued Thursday, as the frustrated commander-in-chief resumed his criticism of the Republican leadership for not advancing the GOP agenda.

Trump's Day II morning tweet criticized McConnell, R-Ky., for failing to pass a plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, and came hours after a tense 10-minute phone call between the two.

"Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn't get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!" Trump tweeted Thursday.

The day before, while much of the media focused on the threat North Korea poses to the United States, Trump lashed out at McConnell on Twitter.

“Senator Mitch McConnell said I had ‘excessive expectations,’ but I don’t think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?” Trump tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

The president’s tweet was seemingly in response to comments McConnell made in a Rotary Club meeting in his home district earlier this week.

McConnell explained to constituents the “complexity of legislating” in response to questions regarding the lack of a “repeal and replace” of ObamaCare.

TRUMP TARGETS MEMBERS' OWN HEALTH PLANS AFTER OBAMACARE REPEAL FALLS FLAT

“A Congress goes on for two years. Part of the reason I think that the storyline is that we haven’t done much is because, in part, the president and others have set these early timelines about things [that] need to be done by a certain point,” McConnell said Monday. “Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before, and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process.”

The president has repeatedly expressed his discontent with Republicans in both the House and the Senate for their failure to pass a plan to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with a new health care plan. The administration was left without a major legislative win before the August recess, with lawmakers, seemingly, willing to shift their focus from health care to tax reform when they return to Capitol Hill.

And after fighting Republicans tooth-and-nail for years on their repeal and replace message, Democrats have started touting a slew of proposals aimed to improve the ailing health care system.

DEMS SUDDENLY SCRAMBLING TO COME UP WITH OBAMACARE FIX

Some Senate Republicans have welcomed Democrats to the process. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said they needed to “stick with” health care and bring it to a resolution.

“The end is going to be sitting down with our colleagues from the other side of the aisle and getting something passed,” Flake said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”

Senate hearings to discuss health care, in a bipartisan fashion, are set to begin September 4.

Brooke Singman is a Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @brookefoxnews.

The U.S. Oil Industry Is Pushing Back on Sanctions Against Venezuela - TIME Business

The U.S. Oil Industry Is Pushing Back on Sanctions Against Venezuela

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 07:26 PM PDT

(CARACAS, Venezuela) — The Trump administration’s decision on Wednesday to slap sanctions on eight members of Venezuela’s all-powerful constitutional assembly brings to 30 the number of government loyalists targeted for human rights abuses and violations of democratic norms since anti-government protests began in April.

But even as the list of targeted individuals grows longer, promised economic sanctions have yet to materialize amid an outcry by the U.S. oil industry that a potential ban on petroleum imports from Venezuela — the third-largest supplier to the U.S. — would hurt U.S. jobs and drive up gas costs.

The sanctions announced Wednesday focused on current or former Venezuelan government officials accused by the U.S. of supporting President Nicolas Maduro’s creation of a special assembly charged with rewriting Venezuela’s constitution — a move the U.S. says is an attempt by Maduro to shore up his grip on power.

Since its election last month, the 545-member assembly has declared itself superior to all other government institutions and ousted Venezuela’s chief prosecutor, a vocal critic of Maduro.

The U.S. Treasury Department took the unusual step of sanctioning Maduro himself last month, freezing any assets he may have in the U.S. and blocking Americans from doing business with him.

The newest additions on Wednesday include Adan Chavez, the older brother of Hugo Chavez, who is credited with introducing the late president to Marxist ideology in the 1970s, and a national guard colonel lionized by the government after he physically shoved congress President Julio Borges during a heated exchange caught on video.

Former Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez, who is leading the assembly but has so far escaped being sanctioned, said the latest U.S. action seeks to “spread fear” among delegates and please government opponents she described as “criminals” and “unpatriotic.”

While most Venezuelan officials wear U.S. sanctions as a badge of honor — and are frequently rewarded with promotions as a result — Maduro faces a far greater threat if Trump follows through on economic sanctions against the OPEC nation.

For all of Maduro’s anti-capitalist rhetoric, Venezuela, which sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves, remains highly dependent on oil exports to the U.S., especially for importing food and medicine — items in short supply as crude prices have fallen and triple-digit inflation wreaks havoc on the economy.

The Trump administration warned last month that it would take “strong and swift economic actions” against Maduro if he went ahead with plans to seat the constitutional assembly.

But since the election last month, no such action has materialized, leading some of Maduro’s opponents to wonder whether the U.S. president has lost his nerve.

The prospect of an import ban has alarmed U.S. oil companies that rely on Venezuelan crude.

Nine companies, including Chevron, Valero, Citgo and Phillips 66, currently process Venezuelan crude in more than 20 U.S. refineries, most of them located along the Gulf Coast, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Many of these refineries are designed for the type of heavy crude that Venezuela exports and replacing those supplies would be disruptive and costly.

An influential industry group whose members include the nine companies has written two letters to Trump warning there is no guarantee that other key sources of U.S. heavy crude imports — Canada, Mexico and Colombia — could provide enough additional supply to replace the Venezuelan oil. Many refineries would likely turn to Saudi Arabia but the higher costs associated with such a shift “could significantly impact fuel costs for U.S. consumers,” according to the letter by the American Fuel & Petrochemicals Manufacturers.

“We want to make sure that we don’t have the unintended consequence of doing more harm to U.S. refineries than the Maduro regime,” said Chet Thompson, the CEO of the group, which represents 95 percent of the U.S. refining sector.

He added that he is hopeful his lobbying is gaining traction.

“We think we’ve come a long way from early July when these sanctions were first being kicked around. … We think folks are a lot smarter on this issue than they used to be,” he said. “We certainly have not received any commitments or promises as far as what they are going to do. But we have done our job.”

The oil industry is finding allies in the U.S. Congress, particularly among lawmakers from the Gulf states.

Six Republican congressmen from three of the states that process Venezuela’s heavy crude — Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana — recently wrote a letter to Trump warning that banning Venezuelan oil imports would do more harm than good. While applauding the president for his efforts to counter “the disturbing decline of democracy” in Venezuela, the lawmakers, led by Rep. Randy Weber of Texas, said that it could jeopardize 525,000 refining-related jobs along the Gulf Coast.

“We fear that potential sanctions will harm the U.S. economy, impair the global competitiveness of our energy business and raise costs to consumers,” according to the July 28 letter, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press by a senior Venezuelan official and whose authenticity was confirmed by one of the signatories, Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana.

Some Senate Republicans could soon join the chorus. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who sits on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, is preparing a letter to Trump raising similar concerns about the impact on the U.S. fuel market, according to his spokesman, John Cummings, who said the senator is rounding up signatories.

Energy analysts, however, have been more circumspect about the effect on global markets and prices at the pump. A recent analysis by Wells Fargo Securities concluded that one impact would be to raise foreign heavy crude prices by about $3.50 a barrel. However, the ban would not affect demand for gasoline or reduce the overall supply of crude on the global market, as Venezuela would likely redirect its shipments to countries in Asia and elsewhere, albeit at a painful discount.

“We do not believe there would be significant impact on retail prices to U.S. consumers given that the net availability of worldwide crude oil volumes would be unchanged,” the Wells Fargo report said.