Much of the media seem intently focused on highlighting or even stirring up supposed scandals and alleged infighting within President Donald Trump's administration, likely to distract or sideline certain senior officials and blunt the effectiveness of Trump's policy agenda.

The latest purported White House scandal involves allegations that top special envoy Richard Grenell "blindsided" the president and other officials with his purportedly unauthorized use of a private jet this week to pick up a U.S. citizen released from detention in Venezuela, the New York Post reported exclusively.

There has been some pushback from the White House against some of the alleged details in that story, though, and the story itself may be part of a broader reported ongoing feud and power struggle between Grenell and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Trump allegedly "blindsided" by Grenell's trip

In a May 20 X post, Special Envoy Grenell shared some pictures and wrote, "Joe St. Clair is back in America. I met Venezuelan officials in a neutral country today to negotiate an America First strategy. This is only possible because @realDonaldTrump puts Americans first."

Per the New York Post, Grenell used a Florida businessman's private jet to fly to the Caribbean island of Antigua to meet with Venezuelan officials and secure the release of St. Clair, a U.S. Air Force veteran who'd been unlawfully detained in Venezuela for the past six months.

The outlet cited an unnamed administration source as having claimed that "Grenell blindsided the president and the White House" with his unauthorized use of the private jet to recover the released American citizen.

Is this actually about Venezuelan oil and a Grenell-Rubio feud?

The Post further reported that anonymous sources also claimed Grenell's trip wasn't solely about retrieving St. Clair from Venezuelan custody, but rather was intended as a longshot gambit to convince President Trump to change his mind about an impending expiration date for licenses for U.S. oil companies, such as Chevron, to do business with Venezuela's socialist regime.

That same day that he'd gone to rescue St. Clair, Grenell also called in to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast and claimed that the president had told him that he'd extend the May 27 expiration deadline by 60 days for Chevron's license to import Venezuelan oil, previously granted by the prior administration, if Grenell was able to show progress in his sporadic negotiations with the Maduro regime, including winning the release of American detainees.

However, the very next day, Secretary Rubio seemed to quash those rumors about license extensions when he definitively posted on X, "The pro-Maduro Biden oil license in #Venezuela will expire as scheduled next Tuesday May 27th."

Contrary report claims Trump "was made aware by Grenell" of the Antigua trip

Interestingly enough, some of the details of that New York Post report have been confirmed, while others were debunked by a similarly themed later report from The Washington Post about the supposed "clash over Venezuela" between President Trump's "dueling diplomats," Special Envoy Grenell and Secretary Rubio.

To be sure, there does appear to be at least some truth to the rumors that Grenell and Rubio have "butted heads since the beginning of the current administration," as well as that Grenell's trip to Antigua to repatriate St. Clair "caught everyone off guard" at the State Department, which was not involved in the envoy's negotiations with the Venezuelan regime.

That said, an unnamed White House official pushed back against the New York Post's "wrong" assertion that Trump was also caught off guard by the development, and instead insisted that "the president was aware and was made aware by Grenell" of what was set to occur with his visit to Antigua.

Further, it was noted that Grenell had dined with Trump the night before the trip during an event at the Kennedy Center on Monday, where he presumably filled the president in on the details, and another White House spokesperson told WaPo, "Ric Grenell is a loyal and valued member of President Trump’s team."

For what it is worth, and despite Grenell's claim to the contrary about extensions, it appears that Trump is sticking to his decision to end all licenses for U.S. companies to import Venezuelan oil on May 27, as the U.S.'s Venezuela Affairs Unit, based in Colombia, said in a Friday statement, "The Trump Administration reiterates its commitment to holding regime officials accountable for human rights violations and to ensuring that the United States does not contribute, directly or indirectly, to the financing of a dictatorship that actively collaborates with our adversaries."