Blood Money
Donald Trump’s most recent, highly suspect efforts to suddenly and unabashedly, assist Russian President Vladimir Putin haven’t received the attention they deserve. Over the weekend, the President of the United States plunged a dagger into the back of Ukraine and that country’s latest effort to finally beat back the Russian invasion. Late Friday, and out of the blue, Donald Trump announced a “massive” (his word) deal to buy diesel fuel from Russia, a deal that would put American cash in the pocket of a dictator who is expected to use it to bolster his war machine and continue slaughtering Ukrainian civilians. As The Atlantic noted, “For war-ravaged Ukraine, it is the most outrageous and heartless Trump betrayal to date. For Trump’s entourage, the deal promises corruption opportunities on a multibillion-dollar scale.” Trump doesn’t want us to believe Russia is a U.S. adversary, an enemy of our allies, Ukraine and the members of NATO. It has been widely reported that Russia has interfered in more than one U.S. election to help Trump. There is no indication this can’t or won’t happen again. Russia is also supporting Iran in our war with that country. And while not an official ally of China, Russia is considered a strategic partner. In these ways, Russia, China, and Iran are united in their goal of destroying or at least severely damaging the United States. Vladimir Putin is, and has been for a long while, a major player in these efforts. He is a brutal dictator whose country has been sanctioned to the hilt in efforts to cut off his access to Western money. But then, on Friday afternoon, along comes a desperate Donald Trump. For all of these reasons and more, the President of the United States should not be doing such business with Putin. First of all, it is illegal. According to the Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act of 2022, Russian diesel cannot be imported unless, “Russia has reached an agreement to withdraw its forces and end hostilities, accepted by Ukraine’s independent government. Russia poses no immediate military threat of aggression to any NATO member. Russia recognizes Ukrainians’ right to freely choose their own government.” Not one of these conditions has been met. Seven senators — three Democrats and four Republicans — sent a letter to the president asking him to “reverse course.” “The United States should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians,” the letter said. Besides selling out Ukraine, buying Russian fuel will do nothing to ease the price of diesel in the United States, Trump’s stated reason for the deal. The amount of the first shipment is less than U.S. consumers use in a single day. If this is Trump’s “October surprise,” meant to help turn the election in his party’s favor, he’s the one who will be surprised. Though he announced this deal in October, it has likely been in the works for far longer. According to several independent journalists, an oil tanker left St. Petersburg on September 22 — two weeks before Trump announced the deal — and is scheduled to arrive in North Carolina any day. Bottom line, the U.S. has a surplus of diesel and doesn’t need Russia’s. This country exports it around the world. World markets determine the price of diesel, keeping the price north of $6 a gallon. So who does it help? Putin, and only Putin. The deal lifts sanctions against Russia for six months, sanctions that have hamstrung Putin’s efforts in his war against Ukraine. It is a war in which, against all odds, Ukraine remains undefeated. Recent Ukrainian drone strikes of Russian oil refineries not only took those refineries offline, they also specifically targeted areas made with hard-to-replace foreign parts. Some have speculated that part of Trump’s diesel deal includes providing Russia with the needed parts. Russia has been bombing Ukrainian data centers. Now Ukraine is countering by bombing Russian data centers. Those data centers house bot farms. A bot farm is an automated computer network programmed to run fake online accounts that can perform countless tasks. They have been used extensively for election interference in the U.S. Russian propaganda that pops up on social media sites like Facebook and X often originates from these Russian bots. Since the attacks, Cloudflare Data Explorer, a data tracking company, reported Russian bot traffic was almost down to zero. “[W]hen our strikes reached Yandex’s data centers, it suddenly became a little easier to breathe on many social media platforms. A lot of people noticed it. There was less hate, less division, and fewer provocations. Because there were fewer bots. And it’s pretty clear where those bots were coming from,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy explained on social media. Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine is stunning and happening in plain sight. On Saturday, at a press availability he lashed out at the Ukrainian president, trying to deflect blame. “Zelenskyy could have ended this war many times, but he deliberately chooses not to. His strikes on Russian oil refineries are creating problems for the world, particularly for American farmers. It is time for Ukraine to get a new president.” Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries did not cause the rise in fuel prices, American attacks on Iran did. Trump’s relationship with Zelenskyy has been rocky since he retook the Oval Office. Trump stopped providing Ukraine with weapons and aid months ago, though U.S. intelligence services do provide invaluable information. The Kyiv Post reports that Trump emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are now threatening to stop sharing information if Ukraine continues to strike Russian energy plants. After announcing the deal for Russian diesel, some of Trump’s senior aides were reportedly busy calling European leaders and demanding they stop sending weapons and aid to Ukraine. Several leaders confirmed these calls from Washington to the Financial Times. It turns out Trump isn’t the only member of the administration making overtures to Russia. For reasons no one in the government is willing to explain, FBI Director Kash Patel is heading to Moscow this week and is being hosted by the FSB, the successor to the KGB, according to The Atlantic. The timing and substance of the trip are suspect, as is the fact that an FBI director is going to Russia at all. The last trip a sitting FBI director made to the Kremlin was in 2013, when Robert Mueller went to discuss the Boston Marathon bombing, which was carried out by Soviet-born terrorists. Patel recently characterized Russia as now a “non-traditional partner” of the U.S., along with China. He also told Reuters that the FBI’s relationships with Russian and Chinese law enforcement are “new and dynamic,” all the while giving testimony in Congress that Russia is among the FBI’s biggest threats. Seventeen current and former U.S. intelligence officials told Atlantic reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick that they are concerned about the trip and what it could mean for the Trump/Putin relationship. Since Republicans in Congress have effectively ceded all power to the president, two Democratic congressmen are raising the alarm about Patel’s planned trip. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jim Himes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, are imploring him to cancel. “In the interest of national security, we ask you to reconsider. Call off this trip,” they wrote in a letter obtained by The Atlantic. No one in the administration is talking. Trump carrying Putin’s water dates back to his first term. In 2019, then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called out Trump’s close ties to the Russian president. “Just as I have said to the president: With him, all roads lead to Putin. I don’t know what the Russians have on the president, politically, personally, or financially,” she said. Trump’s actions over the ensuing seven years have done nothing to challenge those concerns. And his behavior over the last week is nothing short of shocking because it means he is choosing Russia over Europe, Putin over NATO. Trump has long been known for his bizarre behavior. What we are experiencing now is a dangerous new low — certainly the most bizarre any of us has ever seen from a president this close to a major election.
No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading. Stay Steady, Dan |
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