I guess you can call this the ultimate fuck you to Donald Trump. Both Russia and Ukraine ignored his warning to cease energy strikes. It was a one-way deal to begin with. His Trumpness only wanted Ukraine to cease and desist as he had just negotiated a multi-million barrel deal with Putin to deliver badly needed diesel gasoline on the market in the vain hope this would bring prices down before the Congressional mid-term elections in November.
The national diesel price average still tops 6 USD per gallon. Down slightly but not enough to appease a restless electorate that has seen prices rise across the board this past year, due mostly to the ongoing war in Iran, not Ukraine.
This was seen as a gift to Putin, as he has had to deal with a restless public himself. Massive fuel shortages have plagued the country as the result of missile and drone strikes on oil refineries and fuel storage tanks. It's been terribly embarrassing for him but unlike Trump he can disqualify opposition leaders so that there is no one to contest his United Russia party at the polls. In worst case scenarios, he throws them in prison for criticizing the war in Ukraine. Trump hasn't been able to entrench himself that deeply in our government yet.
He still has to abide by election laws. His attempts to subvert them have largely failed, but still he can create chaos. This also took a blow recently when Ukraine knocked out three Yandex troll farms in Russia. Those monitoring online disinformation coming from Russia say there has been no appreciable drop off in fake news, but it was a psychological hit.
Trump has been pulling out heavy hitters like Mike Tyson and Jake Paul to rally the young male population to the polls. A strategy that worked for him in 2024 but also seems to be making no dent on the polls. Most young males felt they were duped. That seems to be the general reaction to Trump's surprise re-election. He hasn't delivered what he promised on the campaign trail. That still doesn't stop him from proudly boasting of his many accomplishments, using taxpayer money for these highly partisan political rallies.
Meanwhile in Ukraine, the missiles and drones keep coming. Russia knocked out power to roughly 600,000 households in Kharkiv and Kyiv this past week. Ukraine tried to retaliate but found its Starlink connections had been cut, greatly limiting its ability to defend itself. Musk claims he had nothing to do with it. This was a military decision. Yet, he is now one of the top advisors to the Pentagon and surely was in the know, as it is his system.
This has created a major diplomatic crisis. The US had more or less maintained a neutral position in the war in Ukraine, no longer actively supplying the country with military hardware. However, it still was providing logistical support. That has apparently now ended with top-ranking generals relaying to Ukraine that they would no longer support strikes in Russia at the behest of His Trumpness and his lacky in the Pentagon, Petey Hegseth.
The irony is that Ukraine does not rely on Starlink for its deep strikes on Russian military and fuel targets because the US has long banned such strikes. It uses Starlink primarily as an early warning system on incoming missiles and drones. With that gone, its ability to shoot down Russian projectiles has fallen from 90 percent to 60 percent. Meaning there will be a lot of needless suffering thanks to Trump's decision to lift diesel sanctions on Russia.
Worse, it now calls into question Ukraine's relationship to the United States. Zelenskyy was recently in London lamenting the drastic turn, saying he felt betrayed by Trump and Musk. You can view the entire interview on Piers Morgan. It also calls into question the relationship between the US and NATO allies, which have strengthened sanctions against Russia.
This is a Pyrrhic victory for Putin and no win at all for Trump, which leads many to speculate why he would even do such a thing? The obvious answer is that Putin has Trump by the balls and can squeeze them whenever he likes. We've known for years Trump's ties to Moscow, dating back to 1987 when he first visited Russia and started speaking out against NATO. Here he is nearly 40 years still spouting the same lines, although he wavers when it seems his old buddy has one foot in the political grave. Putin wastes no time calling Trump to remind him what's at stake as far as his fragile reputation is concerned.
This diesel deal came from such a phone call. Putin was giving Trump a way out of his electoral crisis, or so Trump thought, when all Putin wanted was an infusion of cash to fund his jet-drive Shaheed drones, which are harder to intercept. This is the gift Zelenskyy is referring to. Given there has been no sharp decline in diesel prices, 300,000 tonnes of diesel doesn't even cover one day of fuel consumption in the US, it is not likely his chosen Republican candidates got any bounce in the polls.
The Democrats maintain a 76 percent chance of winning back the House and 60 percent chance of winning back the Senate, barring any unforeseen election interference.
Was it worth it, Donald?
Comments
Post a Comment