IMMEDIATE RELEASE 8 October 2026WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUNDToday’s Events in Historical PerspectiveAmerica’s Longest-Running Column, Founded 1932Gifts to PutinBy Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has just made a terrible deal with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Here is the setup and the deal, most of it well known, but all of it necessary as a lead-up to the stunning, terrible deal.Four years ago, this February, Putin launched an unprovoked war against Ukraine. Trump was not then president, and the Biden presidency backed Ukraine with money and weapons. Ukraine, to the surprise of the world, counterattacked after initially losing ground, after which the war stalemated into World War I-type trench warfare.In 2025, Trump returned to the presidency. He has a long, friendly history with Putin, and in 2009, Trump’s son revealed on television that Trump’s real estate empire was getting from the Russians all the money he needed to weather the 2008-2009 Great (Real Estate) Recession. Indeed, Trump has never said a negative word about Putin, a former KGB operative following in the footsteps of Stalin.Trump soon invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House, where he publicly berated and insulted him. Thereafter, Trump attempted to force Zelensky to accept Russia’s terms for peace, a peace that would have delivered a third of Ukrainian territory over to Russia. Zelensky balked, and Trump cut off all direct aid to Ukraine, opting instead to sell arms to our European allies, who then sent them to Ukraine. It was a good deal for U.S. arms manufacturers and a bad deal for Europe.What Trump did do was sign the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 that targeted Russian energy exports. China and India customers, along with Putin’s shadow fleet, partially offset the problem but ran up against European naval intercepts.This brings us to the startling events of the moment. Trump’s approval rating has dropped as low as 30 percent, and by a wide margin, the public disapproves of his war with Iran, his tariffs, and his heavy-handed immigration/ICE policy, all of which are contributing to a cost-of-living crisis through inflation. Now, with the midterm elections just weeks away and the polls predicting a Democratic wave, Trump, desperate, promised $5,000 to every adult if the GOP wins in November. The public and many in his own party were not buying it. He had made broken monetary promises before, and this one was obviously implausible at the outset.So, he came up with another gambit. He unilaterally removed the sanctions on up to 4.8 million metric tons of Russian diesel oil. After all, the price of diesel fuel doubled over the last year, a blow to both trucking and home heating. It must have seemed like an easy fix for the cost-of-living problem, one that would surely boost his and his party’s standing in the midterms. In reality, it is a terrible deal.First, the world markets use 3.8 million metric tons of diesel fuel a day. This deal will have no beneficial impact. Second, it takes time to refine and distribute oil, so the midterms are a poor target. Third, and by far most important, the only beneficiary of the deal will be Putin because it will provide him with the funds he needs to continue his war against Ukraine. And those funds will go to the oligarchs who are keeping him in power. He has no other power base.The big loser in the deal will be Ukraine. It is of note that this deal comes at a time when the nature of the Russia-Ukraine War has changed. Missiles, drones, and robots have become dominant in a war that is no longer replicating World War I, and the Ukrainians have proven to be exceptionally skilled technologically and tactically in this new 21st-century warfare – so much so that their drones are delivering combat robots behind Russian lines and attack drones deep inside Russia. Their primary targets? Russian oil refineries, fields, and storage facilities.This was too much for Trump, and he insisted that Zelensky halt these attacks. But having cut off aid to Ukraine, he has no leverage, and Zelensky refused, noting that Ukraine is attacking infrastructure and supplies while Putin is mercilessly targeting civilians with relentless swarms of drones and missiles aimed at Ukraine’s cities. Trump, apparently consumed by the prospect of a looming midterm defeat, was not moved, and struck this terrible deal with his friend in the Kremlin. Outraged, Zelensky responded with an irrefutable yet understated truth: “Gifts to Putin will not bring peace.” See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).© 2026 U.S. News Syndicate, IncDistributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.END WASHINGTON understated
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