Before we begin this morning, today is Christy’s and my 26th wedding anniversary. October has two meaningful anniversaries for us. The first, of course, is our wedding. October, ten years ago, is also when Christy was given two years to live due to the genetic lung cancer she has.
I’m so blessed to still have her with me. I love her deeply. I could not do what I do, but for her. Tonight, instead of taking her on a date, I’m making fried catfish and cheese grits — her favorite. We have had a wild ride and a surreal life, wife of mine. I wouldn’t want to live this life with anyone else along for the ride. I love you deeply.
President Trump has cut a deal with Vladimir Putin to buy Russian diesel. The President says Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons, followed by 500,000 tons in November and millions more after that. Diesel prices are high, the midterms are three weeks away, and the President wants a lower number at the pump before Americans vote.
Not only is this strategy not going to help the midterms, it is going to get Americans killed and prolong the war in Ukraine.
On Monday, the President went on Truth Social to say he had seen his critics claim China and Russia were helping Iran, and that “I don’t believe they are at all.” He has described Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin as neutral in this war. His own intelligence community disagrees. According to Reuters, U.S. intelligence assessments from recent months show Russia and China giving Iran satellite imagery for targeting and components for its weapons.
In March, the Washington Post reported that Russia had been passing Iran the locations of American warships and aircraftfrom the moment the war began. That same week, an Iranian drone killed 6 American service members in Kuwait, and the CIA station at our embassy in Riyadh was destroyed. Iran has only a handful of military satellites and no constellation of its own, which is exactly why Russian imagery is so valuable to Tehran. Later that month, Russian satellites photographed Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia repeatedly in the days before Iran struck it. Iran destroyed an American E-3 Sentry and wounded American service members. Sergei Lavrov denies that Russia shares intelligence with Iran, but he has acknowledged that Moscow supplied Iran with military equipment.
Reuters reports that China supplied Iran with shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers and helped Tehran evade sanctions on its oil sales. In July, Iran attacked a base in Jordan and killed 3 American troops after reportedly acquiring satellite images of that base from Chinese entities. The President brushed that report aside in September. Last month, he warned Xi not to help Iran, which he should not have to do if he believed China was staying out of it. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said China buys 90% of Iran’s energy and is therefore “funding the largest state sponsor of terrorism.”CIA Director John Ratcliffe told the Senate in March that Iran was asking Russia and China for intelligence help, and he would only discuss what they were providing in a classified session.
Everybody understands what is happening except the President. At the G7 meeting in France in March, the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said Russia was helping Iran with intelligence to target and kill Americans, and France’s foreign minister said Paris had reason to believe Russia was supporting Iran’s military effort.
The Russians know exactly why they are doing this. One of the American government officials who spoke to the Washington Post said the Russians were “very happy to try to get some payback” for our help to Ukraine. Every dollar we send Moscow for diesel is a dollar Putin can spend killing Ukrainians, and some of it will find its way to Tehran to help kill Americans. Russia can get payback against the United States cheaply by helping Iran.
The deal also likely violates the law.
