Trump suggests Venezuela become the 51st US state and elect a governor

NEW: Trump suggests Venezuela should become the 51st US state and elect a governor instead of a president, as the first shipment of one million barrels of Venezuelan oil arrives in Texas.

Donald Trump wants Venezuela to be the fifty first state. He said it out loud, at a rally in Corpus Christi, standing next to an oil tanker.

You can see him here, telling the crowd Venezuela should elect a governor instead of a president. His words, let's make it the fifty first state, you know, they have a lot of oil. Subtle as ever. The occasion was the first shipment of one million barrels of Venezuelan crude arriving in Texas under the deal Washington cut with Caracas after Maduro was removed in January.

Caracas has heard this before. Acting President Delcy Rodriguez has rejected the idea repeatedly, pointing to two centuries of sovereignty. And opposition leader Maria Corina Machado just returned home after ten months abroad, with Trump saying he hopes she is safe.

Here's the fact that actually matters. The US now holds majority control over a huge share of Venezuela's oil reserves, and the presidential election there still has no date.

This is Kateryna Kovalenko, reporting for HIT.