President Donald Trump is in a difficult situation. His party is headed for potentially historic losses in the midterm elections, fueled in large part by anger over his pro-inflationary policies, including tariffs on his allies, expulsions of immigrant workers and his ill-conceived war against Iran.
And few things illustrate the damage better than soaring diesel prices, which now average more than $6.25 a gallon nationwide, according to AAA.
The data is clear on what determines these prices:
Russia struck first, destabilizing global energy markets with its misguided invasion of its Ukrainian neighbor, then that idiot Trump followed suit four years later with his own disastrous war against Iran.
The result has been a global energy crisis, with diesel shortages driving up the costs of everything from road and agricultural transportation to manufacturing and food production. And voters are understandably furious.
Trump’s desperation is now clear, having finally put an end to the things he really cares about, like building arches and reflecting pools and cutting down hundreds of trees in defiance of court orders. He needs something, anything, to deflect blame for fuel prices before Election Day.
So he concocted what he thought was a foolproof plan.
You see, he could openly change American policy to support his friend Vladimir Putin, the dictator of Russia, while claiming he was lowering fuel prices to American voters!
So, just weeks after signing the “Lindsey O. Graham Russia and Iran Sanctions Act of 2026,” which, according to the White House itself, “authorizes and expands statutory sanctions, tariffs, and prohibitions against Russia and expands existing sanctions against Iran,” Trump went ahead and undermined the very purpose of this law.
He announced that he had negotiated a deal with Putin to supply Russian diesel to the U.S. and global markets, with his administration temporarily lifting sanctions to make it happen.
And what a deal it was!
Russia would initially supply 300,000 tonnes of diesel, followed by another 500,000 tonnes in November, another million tonnes after that and potentially another 3 million tonnes later.
Seems like a lot, right?
This initial shipment is equivalent to approximately 14 hours of U.S. diesel consumption. The first three expeditions combined would cover approximately three and a half days. Even if all promised and conditional shipments materialized, the grand total would amount to less than 10 days of U.S. consumption, not enough to affect global prices even at the margins.
And that assumes that Russia has diesel in reserve, which is not the case! In Trump’s Truth Social message announcing the deal, he specifically noted that future supplies to Russia would be “based on the condition of their diesel refineries.” This is essential because Russian refineries are, in large part, on fire due to long-range Ukrainian drone strikes, so much so that Russia has previously banned diesel exports, unable to supply its own domestic supply, but this has been import diesel from countries like Iran and South Korea.
Trump doesn’t care about any of this. What matters to him is 1) that he can finally align American policies with those of fascist Russia and – this is particularly important – 2) that he can now blame Ukraine for high diesel prices. And her surrogates spent the weekend doing just that.
Trump and Putin are furious with Ukraine because their refinery strikes have emerged as one of its most effective weapons against the Russian war machine. They harm Russia’s ability to fuel its military, disrupt its domestic economy, and deprive the Kremlin of the revenue it needs to continue its invasion.
So for Trump’s diesel deal to work, he needs Ukraine to stop doing one of the things that actually works against Russia.
And of course, Trump is siding with Russia, thinking he has a winner, able to blame Ukraine for its own failures, while swaying public opinion against Ukraine.
Few people bought it. Condemnation has been fierce both internationally and from both sides of the political aisle here in the United States. The administration was in immediate damage control mode, complaining that it was all Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s fault.
“President Trump decided to pursue a diesel fuel deal with Russia after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ignored half a dozen U.S. demands to stop attacking Russian oil refineries, a U.S. official with direct knowledge told Axios,” the publication reported.
This official further lamented: “Zelensky is misinterpreting the situation. By continuing to hit refineries, he is eroding the goodwill he has built with Trump over the past six months.”
In fact, it is Asset misread the room. There was no “goodwill” with Trump. The U.S. side spent a year and a half coercing Ukraine into promises to share schematics for U.S. Patriot air defense missiles and other aid that never materialized. There is still millions in Ukraine, aid that Congress authorized and Trump refused to deliver.
And in doing so, Trump gave up much of the influence he had over Ukraine. This has not escaped anyone across the Atlantic, with European allies scrambling to replace US military assistance and intelligence capabilities. France announced that it now provides two-thirds of Ukraine’s intelligence needs. Trump has apparently lost his last card. This makes it easier when the United States tries to put pressure on them directly, as it did this weekend to demand that Europe stop aiding Ukraine.
Ukraine is therefore now emboldened to chart its own course on war.
Shortly before Trump announced his oil deal with Russia, Ukraine launched a massive strike against several Russian refineries, with Zelensky himself triumphantly announcing these actions. And even after Trump announced his deal with Putin, there were reports of another Ukrainian attack on an oil facility in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
Then on Sunday, Trump declared an “ENERGY CEASEFIRE” between Ukraine and Russia – only, according to Ukraine, the ceasefire was news to them. Of course, there was no energy ceasefire. It was Trump screaming in rage in Truth Social, thinking his words could shape reality.
Zelensky said he would be happy to agree to an energy ceasefire if Russia also accepted it, but then noted that on Monday morning, Russia struck energy infrastructure.
Somehow, no one expects Trump to yell at his friend Putin in response.
So to recap:
Trump’s war against Iran has helped create a global energy crisis that is hitting U.S. consumers and threatening Republicans’ electoral prospects.
Desperate to lower diesel prices, Trump turned to Putin, undermining U.S. sanctions on Russia in exchange for relatively small and uncertain quantities of the fuel.
But Russia’s ability to deliver this fuel depends on refineries that Ukraine is systematically destroying.
Trump therefore announced a ceasefire on energy infrastructure, which neither side had clearly accepted.
This is what happens when a president believes that stating something makes it true. Election day can’t come soon enough.
Gn world
