Yesterday there was a headline in the New York Times — Trump Offers Putin Economic Relief in Hopes That Russia Will Return the Favor. So the U.S. is just a supplecant nation to Russia now.
Trump waived all of the sanctions against Russia in the recently passed Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which of course he doesn’t have the constitutional authority to do. And this was done in a desperate attempt to lower gas prices before the Midterms, which are 16 days away. And early voting has already started in several states. How is this even supposed to work?
The crumbling of years of work by the United States to put economic pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine raises questions about the Trump administration’s strategy to broker a peace deal. Mr. Trump’s executive order on Friday comes as the administration is pushing for Europe to resume buying more Russian gas, as part of the peace deal.
I question whether it’s physically possible for Russia to resume gas sales to Europe within the next sixteen days. There are political and contractual agreements that would have to be reached, and I have no idea what condition Russia’s refineries are in. But Trump’s move did manage to piss off a lot of Republicans.
Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Putin is promoting the idea of a summit with himself, Trump, and Xi Jinping to come to a deal about ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Notice who isn’t invited. I’m just wondering what Putin plans to snooker Trump into this time.
A week ago Ukraine hit some Russian refiners and data centers, and three days ago Ukraine let Trump know what it thought of his diesel deal with more strikes on refineries. Earlier today St. Petersburg was slammed by Ukrainian drones. But I’m seeing that Russia has hit Kiev and the Dnipropetrovsk region with drones in the past several hours. It feels as if the war is intensifying.
But yeah, I’m sure a summit with Trump, Putin, and Zi Jinping will straighen it all out.