“As the U.S. government faced shortcomings in the country’s weapons manufacturing, the Pentagon set up a new office that would make investments to help boost defense industrial production,” the New York Times reports.“That effort, which began in 2022 during the Biden administration, is now taking a sharp turn with the Pentagon’s involvement in an oil production deal between the United States and Venezuela that President Trump announced on Friday.”Financial Times: Alejandro Betancourt: the man who would be Trump’s “viceroy” in Venezuela.