• We fear that every network is going to livestream an execution on Election Day.
• In his effort to reverse the rise in diesel prices—which have soared this year from $3.50 per gallon in January to about $6.20 now—President Donald Trump has lifted U.S. sanctions on exports of Russian diesel. In return, Russia will supply 300,000 metric tons (2.25 million barrels) into U.S. and global markets, which is a trivial amount, equivalent to less than one day’s demand for the U.S. transport sector. This would be followed in due course by an additional 1.5 million tons, a deal that may be in breach of the U.S. ban on Russian energy imports. Trump also unilaterally declared an “energy cease-fire” between Russia and Ukraine, which Russia promptly treated with contempt, attacking a facility in Kharkiv. Moscow is trying to grind Ukraine down. There can be no room for a cease-fire in that plan. To be sure, an American president cannot welcome the domestic price effects of the Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. And just weeks before the midterm elections, Trump knows the public is restless. But the president has not served U.S. interests well with these latest maneuvers. He has yet again delivered a message that the U.S. can be an unreliable ally, which will be heard far beyond Kyiv. Moreover, Trump has signaled to Moscow and Beijing that his domestic political weakness, something that is unlikely to improve any time soon, will be a rich source of pressure points.
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