Right, so Donald Trump is once again debasing himself on the world stage, trying to fix one ham-fisted problem he’s created for himself by creating a brand new one, this time having just sent Vladimir Putin a thank-you note for a splash of diesel, which will I have no doubt have Putin rolling around the floor laughing his tiny a*se off over.
And it’s not because Russia has stopped flattening Ukraine, because of course it hasn’t. Nor because Putin has offered up anything resembling a concession, because he’s onto a winner here once more. No, Trump has just flung open the American market to Russian diesel, considered the matter "Mission Accomplished" heading into the Midterms as Americans the country over verge on going all torches and pitchforks again over fuel prices at the pumps, all while handing Putin a sanctions holiday for a shipment that'll keep America running in actuality for about as long as this video will go on for.
Trump is strutting around claiming he's solved America's fuel woes by going cap in hand to the closest thing the West has to a real life Bond villain and handing the Russian President another big win.
No peace deal. No Russia packing up and leaving Ukraine. Not even a half-baked ceasefire scribbled on the back of a napkin.
It’s all for just a tiny bit of diesel. A few barrels of Putin juice.
And before anyone argues that at least gas prices will drop, you really do need to look at what America is actually getting.
The first Russian diesel shipment clocks in at just over 300,000 tonnes. Sounds huge, right? And it is, if you're filling up just a single tanker. But America inhales diesel like a hungover frat boy at an all-you-can-eat buffet: trucks, farms, construction, trains, generators, you name it. Spread that out, and you get – drumroll please – about fifteen hours worth of diesel - barely enough time for Trump to post about it twice.
So Trump has flung open the American market to Russian diesel like he's running a fire sale at a bankrupt casino and he’d know a thing or two about bankruptcy of course. Putin gets sanctions relief, a standing ovation from the White House, and the once-in-a-lifetime thrill of being thanked by a US president who he knows he has mugged off yet again. America, meanwhile, gets a shipment that'll keep the lights on for about as long as it takes Trump to fudge his latest golf scorecard.
Trump has handed Putin a political prize the size of Texas in exchange for what amounts to half a day’s worth of fuel, then strutted around like he's single-handedly solved the energy crisis with a single tanker and a sweaty orange handshake.
There it is, no spin needed. The President of the United States, beaming like he's just won a meat raffle, thanks Vladimir Putin and tells the world how giddy he is to get his mitts on a splash of diesel.
Putin gets what he's wanted all along doesn’t he? Not just money from a shipment, though there is plenty of that. He gets a hole punched through the sanctions wall. He gets to show that, after all the speeches, threats, and chest-beating about standing up to Russia, the White House will reopen a market the moment Trump is under pressure. And Trump gets, fifteen hours worth for his trouble. Enough time to watch his approval rating drop one point for every hour I suppose!
You can just picture it can’t you? Trading a year's worth of political humiliation for a coupon good for half a day's diesel. That's like getting mugged in broad daylight and sending the mugger a thank-you card.
The US Treasury licence is worth a mention here too, because this is not some vague nod from a man in a corridor with a clipboard. It is a formal sanctions exemption. General License 135 permits transactions involving Russian diesel that would otherwise be barred, opening the route to global trade in it.
So this isn't some one-off emergency patch that vanishes when the first tanker sails away. This is a deliberate policy move, made while Trump struts around claiming he can squeeze Russia, tame Iran, sort out Hormuz, and bring down fuel prices by the sheer force of his own orangeness.
He says a lot of things, fortunately the paperwork is more committed.
Trump says America has "total control" of Hormuz, though reality is he’s got a better grip of his own bowel movements than he does of the Middle East.
The Strait of Hormuz has been ballsed up utterly for months, and now the Americans are adding to that danger themselves. On 10 October, a US fighter jet struck the commercial cargo ship Ocean Molica in the Gulf of Oman, disabling its propulsion. We know who fired because CENTCOM announced it. They said the vessel had left an Iranian port and ignored warnings to stop under their blockade. They also said the crew were unharmed, thankfully, but there is zero chance while incidents keep happening like that, that the oil flows from the Middle East are going to return to normal.
So Trump is thanking Putin for diesel while his own military continues to screw up shipping to and from the energy passage Trump himself has screwed up in his stupid war on Iran all done as a favour to Israel. That’s his answer to an energy crisis hitting him in the polls and all of us at the pumps: take a hammer to the supply chain that everyone relied, then pat himself on the back by going from screwing up one war front to another in order to ‘fix’ it. His answer is to go begging to Moscow for diesel and he comes away with the equivalent of one can, having rattled the tin for a Putin top-up.
This is what energy insecurity actually looks like. Ships in trouble, crews at risk, and a route that should be moving the world's fuel turning into yet another crisis point in a war Trump keeps swearing is over and America’s won every other day.
And then, as if on cue, comes the Russian diesel arrangement.
Trump has created a situation where he can point to disruption, point to prices, point to anxiety, and say he has found a practical answer, despite the most practical answer being him sodding off. The trouble is that when the answer involves rewarding the country he claims to oppose in support of Ukraine, it's like smashing your own kitchen window, letting the rain pour in, then holding a press conference to announce you've scored a great deal on buckets. And the bucket salesman is Vladimir Putin.
The numbers are what make this so cringe though, but of course the Trump press aren’t saying a dicky bird about that because the numbers sound so good. Russia's supposed to supply 300,000 tonnes now, 500,000 in November, then a million after that. Sounds massive, right? Bu that's the con. Most people can't picture a ton of diesel, and Trump is counting on that confusion to make this look like a genius move.
But compared with American demand, the first tranche is about fifteen hours’ worth. November’s delivery will last a day. A million tons of diesel will last about 2 days and of course that assumes America gets all of the diesel, Trump is claiming it is for both American and global markets, so actually the picture is even worse.
And for that, Trump has handed Putin access, legitimacy, and a get-out-of-sanctions-free card-sanctions his own cheerleaders swear are supposed to keep Russia's war machine in check.
Zelensky calls it what it is: a gift to Putin and for a change I’ll agree with him, I’m not exactly a fan of either leader for one reason or other.
You don't have to take Zelensky's word as gospel to spot the obvious. Russia supplies diesel, America rolls out the red carpet, Trump thanks Putin, and the Kremlin pockets the cash, the political cover, and another chance to say Western resolve is just a bargaining chip. And Putin would also be right there wouldn’t he?
But it also puts Trump in another bind that’s not exactly going to be winning him votes, given how indoctrinated we all are to believe Russia, like Iran is the permanent bad guy all the time.
So there’s Trump in the middle of this ongoing, never-ending Ukraine War, supposedly on the side of Ukraine, now publicly telling Ukraine not to hit Russian refineries-because, apparently, diesel supplies are tight, the US needs it and Putin's feelings are made of tissue paper.
And then Trump of course reopens the American market to Russian diesel and sells it as his own solution to the fuel crunch.
And nobody in Washington seems brave enough to ask: why is Trump shielding Russian refinery output from Ukrainian attack, then parading that same diesel as his own solution to the fuel shortage?
I mean, if you were looking for a long between the war on Ukraine and the war on Iran, here it is staring you clean in the face and the biggest problem for both of them is loud, fat and very, very orange.
Ukraine is told to take it easy on Russian refineries. Putin gets his diesel deal. Trump calls it a massive win. It takes a special kind of brass neck to protect the product, then give yourself a standing ovation for importing it.
There's another layer to this, because Trump isn't merely dealing with a fuel market. He is dealing with an election problem of course. American households do not care whether the price pain comes with a sophisticated geopolitical explanation. They see the pump price. They see the heating bill. They see the cost of getting to work. They see the price of everything that has to be moved by road.
Even a mush-for-brains like Trump can grasp that. That's why he needs a story where he rides in, shakes a few hands, grabs some diesel, and declares victory. But this isn't a rescue. It's an admission of failure and he’s celebrating it, thinking we can’t see through it.
If your answer to fuel insecurity is to become dependent on Russian diesel, you haven't secured energy independence at all, you’ve just advertised your own desperation and warning Ukraine off from striking refineries, just nails that on. How can Russia be a permanent enemy as fed to the American audience, and then be regarded as a saviour and Putin a lovely sort of chap all of a sudden? How stupid does Trump think the average American is? He needs to stop hanging out with MAGA so much, he seems to think all Americans are that mad.
The war around Hormuz has turned every fuel decision for months now into a political decision. When shipping routes are disrupted, the consequences travel. Through freight costs. Through food prices. Through heating bills. Through every small business watching its margins disappear while politicians talk about resilience as though that pays the bills.
Trump's answer has been to hand America's energy security to Putin at the exact moment he's bragging about cutting America's ties to everyone else. I mean it is genius, as long as you're rooting for Moscow of course.
There's a word for that, and it isn't strength.
And in line with that thinking, and in line with not all American’s being mad, even some of the mad ones aren’t fooled, which brings me to the fallout within his own party over this. Most of these folks have spent years cheering Trump through stunts that would have had them foaming at the mouth if a Democrat had tried them.
But even they can smell the stink coming off of this one and their seats are on the line.
Trump has handed Putin a sanctions waiver for a supply that barely dents US demand. He did it while sweating over fuel prices, while claiming command over Hormuz that is just complete delusion, and while telling Ukraine to stop damaging the Russian refineries that churn out the diesel he's now desperate to buy. Now Republicans are being asked to defend a deal that makes Trump look weak, Putin look indispensable, and Ukraine look like an annoying buzzing wasp that you want to swat because it won’t stay quiet.
Good luck spinning that one. I’ll play a tiny violin for you.
So all in all Trump needs a scapegoat, and fast.
Zelensky is the perfect target: he’s being difficult, he is the man now supposedly making the fuel crisis worse by hitting Russian infrastructure. Never mind that Russia invaded Ukraine. Never mind that those refineries bankroll the invasion. Never mind that Trump is now rewarding the same system with market access to the US.
No, apparently the real problem is the country being invaded. Apparently, the man doing the world a favour is the one who started the war, NATO expansionism and Ukraine coup in favour of a US puppet leadership aside of course – the entire Ukraine-Russia war is a mess and then some.
But you can watch the narrative being built in real time: Putin supplies, Trump thanks, Zelensky objects, Trump attacks Zelensky, and then Trump declares himself the only adult in the room because he's willing to do business with the villain of the piece
People obviously shouldn't be priced out of staying warm, getting to work, or feeding their families because powerful men have decided shipping lanes are pieces on a board game.
That's why this deal deserves a microscope and a very healthy dose of scepticism. People need their eyes open because it’s another massive Trump con.
And when Trump calls it a huge victory, ask yourself: victory over whom, exactly?
Not Putin. Putin gets sales and sanctions relief.
Not Ukraine. Ukraine is told to pull its punches.
Not American consumers, not on the evidence of an initial supply covering roughly fifteen hours.
And not the world's shipping lanes, which remain completely screwed up while Trump claims he’s in "total control".
The only thing Trump has managed to control here is the direction of the benefits, and they're all going Russia’s way.
Trump didn't outmanoeuvre Putin here. He got boxed in by fuel panic around Hormuz, then paid Putin for the privilege of calling it a solution.
That's why the fallout is hilarious as much as it is also a serious matter that Trump deserves to get the treatment over. Trump tried to sell himself as the man who fixed it all, while the numbers say he bought himself fifteen hours, the policy says he rolled over on sanctions, and even his own side can see the humiliation from orbit.
Trump hasn't made America stronger. He's just made Putin more useful, and he's done it for the price of a puddle of diesel.
For more on the now getting all too long tale of Little Donnie the Mango-tinged Muppet, do stick with the channel for more of his epic fails, such as this recommendation here as your suggested next watch.
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