Trump is back to not caring if Ukraine bombs Russia

In September, Trump needed someone to blame for the politically disastrous fuel prices caused largely by his dumb war in Iran. Ukraine made a convenient scapegoat, even though Russian oil supplies have already been constrained since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. 

Trump even announced a deal with Putin to import Russian diesel, temporarily lifting sanctions to facilitate the shipments. It was pure political theater: Even the most optimistic projections amounted to less than 10 days of U.S. diesel consumption. And the United States is already a net exporter of diesel, so importing a few Russian tankers was never going to meaningfully affect global prices.

But even that pathetic deal appears to be falling apart. Despite fierce pressure from the Trump administration, U.S. energy companies reportedly want nothing to do with Russian diesel, fearing legal and reputational consequences. Industry analysts speculate that the fuel might end up in Brazil.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered Trump a perfectly reasonable alternative: Both sides could stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure. 

But Trump wasn’t interested in a reciprocal deal. He wanted Ukraine to stop attacking Russia, even as Russian missiles and drones continued pounding Ukrainian cities and power plants, killing civilians and leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity as winter approaches.

Ukraine eventually relented, suspending its refinery strikes for two weeks. 

According to The Wall Street Journal, the pause was motivated by diplomatic considerations, including efforts to resolve restrictions on Ukraine’s access to Elon Musk’s critically important Starlink satellite service, which he unilaterally cut because he’s an asshole.

Related | Trump has no cards to play on Ukraine

But Zelenskyy’s patience ran out, and now Russia is furious. But Trump? Not a peep.

“Another figure close to the administration told the Kyiv Independent that much of the administration’s rhetoric around Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure was aimed at a domestic audience, pointing out that the CIA was still supplying Ukraine with intelligence on Russian air defense dispositions that helped facilitate Ukraine’s deep-strike campaign,” The Kyiv Independent reported.

So while Trump was publicly demanding that Ukraine stop attacking Russian refineries, his own intelligence agencies were reportedly helping Ukraine do exactly that.

Of course, now that it’s Election Day, Trump’s urgency has vanished. Russian refineries are burning again, and those sad tankers of Russian diesel are still looking for somewhere to unload their cargo.

Ukraine gave Putin’s war machine two weeks of relief, Russia keeps killing Ukrainian civilians, and Trump got his preelection talking point.

And really, what else does he care about?