This is, of course, a lie. Very on brand. But is there insight in Trump's recent increasingly unhinged boasts, which are out there, even for him.
The unilateral Diesel Deal just smashes the idea of sanctions, but - more than that - it can't possibly make a lick of difference to U.S. retail diesel prices. There just isn't enough of it, and that ignores the very real possibility that Russia doesn't even actually deliver all of it. Point being - it won't move American diesel prices at all, which defeats the purpose of trying to get some midterm-saving gas price relief. That was always a stupid plan anyways, since delivering 12 days worth of U.S. diesel consumption does nothing to the gasoline price anyways, which affects way way WAY more persuadable voters than diesel does.
Then why do it? Keeping in mind he's fully capable of simply lying in childish, absurd ways just from pure idiotic spite. His reliable, obedient smooth brain, mouth-breathing supporters will at least remember "hUrR deRr TrUmP g0t uS deEzul", even if there is zero change to what it costs them to fill up their vehcile today.
Well...if it won't budge diesel prices in a way that's politcally useful, maybe it's purpose is as a pretext for him to do more obvious shitty things to Ukraine. But that's not news and shouldn't be a surprise to any serious minded watcher. For the record - the first Russian tanker as part of this scheme left port on Sept 22nd. This WAS clearly the plan for some time now. But it's an incredibly stupid plan on it's face.
Take several steps back. Trump's conduct in two years has swung from "If I'm president I will have that war settled in 1 day, 24 hours". Then through the usual ham-fisted bullshit of berating Zelensky and the Ukrainians, telling them they 'have no cards', pulling U.S. military and economic aid, now threatening to undo the PURL initiative where Europe buys U.S. weapons (at full cost) for Ukraine without America paying for anything.
All of it is incredibly desperate. Nothing has made a lick of difference to the fundamental state of the war. And it seems like the orders he's being given now matches perfectly with his clinging desperation and fear about what's going to happen in the midterms in a couple of weeks. He always shouts the loudest when he's weakest.
He's a morbidly obsese toddler whose likely lifespan is probably in months, not years. And unless he's able to simply overthrow american democracy in 3 weeks, he's about to have his balls cut off politically for his (probable) lame duck period. He isn't going to be able to operate as freely, and the Russians probably fully realize that too.
Hence why the crazy seems turned up to 12 recently. His pathetic thrashing reveals that he's pissed away any leverage he DID have in influencing the conclusion of the war. The russians, for their part, are using him as a megaphone for their ludicrous maximalist goals. There's a silver lining there that at least they seem to understand that things aren't going to get better for them.
The feared post-Russian election mobilization doesn't seem to have been enacted in any meaingful way. In short - they aren't doing anything that looks like a war-altering strategy, and the loudest piece on the board is Trump flinging handfuls of dookie asking for Ukraine to give up something that, remember, is substantially less than what Russia wanted in Feb 2022.
They aren't in a good position, and neither is he. Ukraine would probably do well to continue to weather this storm for a little bit longer, if they want a truly just and lasting peace.
Thoughts?
Cor-Rect. That was going to be my other point. The U.S. has learned the hard limits of airstrikes, yet again. American pain tolerance is low, and in war games exercises with ukraine, they have been shown repeatedly that the U.S. ground forces are not ready for scaled drone warfare.
But this is the internet - let's play for shits & giggles. I think the MOST the U.S. would have done is to sink the Baltic fleet, and implement a no-fly zone over all of Ukraine, along with a faster moving and more comprehensive air-defense assets transfer. American boots on the ground probably a non-starter under any conceivable scenario, and the U.S. public would have quickly lost it's appetite for fighting in Ukraine even if casualty ratios were 20:1 in favor of the americans.
This country lost it's shit to losing a handful of security guards over Benghazi. You think they're going to support losing hundreds of troops a month or more defending a non-NATO country? The first Amreican obituaries and footage of wrekced Abrams and destroyed F-35's would be political suicide for any president dumb enough to do it.
They lied about the amount of damage and Casualties already. They will continue to lie about everything.