Trump met Friday with oil executives to urge them to invest in Venezuela oil production. The value of Venezuela’s on-and off-shore petroleum treasure chest is estimated to exceed $1 trillion.

The oil bosses didn’t leap at the chance. According to the Wall Street Journal, Exxon CEO Darren Woods told Trump: “Venezuela is currently uninvestable without significant changes to the country’s commercial frameworks, legal system and hydrocarbon laws.”

“We’ve had our assets seized there twice,” Woods said. “You can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we’ve historically seen here.”

ConocoPhillips CEO, Ryan Lance, was equally skeptical, saying his company is “the largest nonsovereign credit holder in Venezuela today” and estimates that Chavez and Maduro effectively expropriated $12 billion of the company’s investment.

This is a teachable moment for socialists abroad and in places like, oh, New York City: you can confiscate property from investors once and sometimes even twice, but after that, the investors and corporate CEOs won’t be fooled again no matter how much you beg them to come back.