Ukraine set Moscow's biggest oil refinery on fire on Saturday night, and Moscow's mayor claimed his forces shot down more than 1,600 drones, a count nobody has verified. Trump answered on Truth Social at 8 a.m.: Russia "has unfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry," its refineries "have been blown up," and the war "must be ended." What a shame, he wrote. He had already said it in private: he phoned Zelensky on Sunday and asked him to stop hitting the refineries, the Financial Times reported this morning — "diesel, diesel, diesel." Zelensky answered within the hour: this Russian war "against common sense must be ended." Narativ first reported Trump's Russia connections in December 2016 and has written it the same way since: every time Ukraine hurts Putin, Trump moves to protect him. Putin funds his war from refineries like the one Ukraine burned, and Narativ reported this weekend who else earns while the price holds — Trump, on his own disclosures. Zelensky sees Trump in New York on Tuesday.
Trump told Fox News he is "probably" open to meeting Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian at the UN this week. Iranian state media said on Monday that American officials refused visas to Pezeshkian's communications team. The Revolutionary Guards' Hossein Mohebbi warned: "If a new aggression occurs, we will certainly change the weaponry and the geography of the war." Mike Waltz says Trump addresses the General Assembly on Tuesday. Both men are using the threats as leverage, and they get a deal out of it this week. It won't hold.
Trump and his sons hold AI stakes — Dell, Micron, Broadcom, Don Jr.'s $1.2 billion fund — the Washington Post reported Sunday, as he announces an "AI Force." He keeps no blind trust and rejects any slowdown; the White House says independent managers run the accounts. Narativ reported 15 September that he bought up to $5 million of Nvidia while calling AI's danger a "HOAX." The family earns from the same AI the government is installing everywhere.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that "I understand that Don has paid him back" — Umar Kremlev, Putin's boxing chief, who bankrolled Don Jr.'s wedding party in the Bahamas. Trump called the gift "totally allowed," and only Trump says the money went back. He confirms the Kremlin cash and the refund in one breath.
Trump rushed a "work of art" helipad onto the South Lawn for Xi Jinping, who arrives this week, days after telling Republicans the other side would turn America communist. He says the pad is for the actual communist.
Trump arrives at the UN doing business but with few cards to play. His only strategy is to cave to his friendly autocrats even before the meetings at the UN start: begging Zelensky to spare Putin’s refineries, pouring a new helipad for Xi, and hoping they will help him with Iran. It’s a fool’s play. Why would Russia or China give up their leverage over the US? Meanwhile, as we reported, the AI Trump won’t regulate is making him millions, just like the energy stocks from the prolonged war. Trump expects to walk out of the UN week a hero, having bent the world to his needs, but as he has learned before, the alchemy he believed he possessed to control the globe was a figment of his imagination. He is sitting isolated, desolate, and alone — just where Putin and Xi want him.
SPECIAL REPORT: Eddy Aragon at 1 PM ET
FiveStack, Dean Blundell 3 PM ET.
Trump traded energy stocks through the war that lifts the price — his own disclosures show it.
