Is Trump Abandoning Ukraine?

Julia Ioffe (0:00)

Moody's analytics came out that the war in Iran is costing Americans $2,000 per individual, and most of that is at the gas pump. But we all know Donald Trump doesn't like to take responsibility or blame for anything, and it's certainly nothing is ever his fault. It's Ukraine's fault for bombing Russia.

Peter Hamby (0:20)

Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Puck's podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood, and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby. It's Thursday, October 15th. Today, I'm joined by Julia Ioffe to break down how Donald Trump cut an oil export deal with Russia to help lower energy costs, even if it means funding Vladimir Putin's war machine in Ukraine. Trump is defiant, but plenty of Republicans on Capitol Hill are now objecting to the energy agreement, which experts say is unlikely to bring down gas prices before the midterms anyway. We'll discuss all that and much more on today's episode of The Powers That Be.

Happy Thursday, everybody, and welcome to The Powers That Be. I'm joined today by my colleague, Julia Ioffe. There is a lot of news coming out of Ukraine and Russia. Some of it's sort of tied to Trump's desperate attempts before the midterm elections to show that he's fighting to lower prices for the American people. But it's an international and diplomatic mess once again. Donald Trump announced a diesel export deal with Russia. Remember, there are sanctions from the US on Russia preventing them since 2022 from sending energy to the United States. However, Trump did a deal with Putin where they're going to export about 600,000 barrels of oil to the US. Several Republican senators are objecting along with many Democrats. But Trump says this is a good deal for the American people. We'll get into the details there. But first, Julia, we have to mention too, that there have been a series of drone and missile strikes inside Ukraine. President Zelensky has done a round of interviews this week, kind of asserting that the United States didn't give them a heads up about these attacks. How many civilians are dying? Let's start there.

It does feel like, and maybe it's because I, Peter, and maybe some more news consumers in the United States haven't been following Ukraine and Russia as closely, given all the domestic news happening here in the US around the elections. But it does feel like the attacks inside Ukraine have ramped up in recent months. I've seen social media clips of civilians walking around Kyiv just dodging drones, some really dramatic, very scary videos.

Am I right about that, that they've increased lately?

Julia Ioffe (2:56)

Yes, you are absolutely right about that. And Vladimir Putin has made no secret of the fact that this is not a coincidence. Basically since Ukraine has started targeting Russian energy facilities like oil processing plants, oil refineries, storage tanks over the summer, which has led to shocking footage out of Russia, like people lined up and waiting for hours for gas, getting in fist fights, waiting for these lines, having total meltdowns while waiting for to fill up a tank of gas with a little kid in the back.

And that's shocking because Russia is one of the world's foremost exporters of oil and gas, right? So seeing that in a country like that is crazy. And it happened right before parliamentary elections in Russia, which hilariously Russia still insists on having elections. They're very important to Putin. They are very important to his show of popularity. This kind of simulacrum of popularity that he has like, Oh, look, the nation came out once again, high turnout and in overwhelming numbers supported me and my course for the country. So the fact that Ukraine did this, the fact that it was humiliating, it showed how much Russians don't like Vladimir Putin, don't like the war, don't like the course he has taken them on right before these elections really pissed Putin off. And he said, You guys asked for it. This is what you're going to get. This is basically what he has said now repeatedly in public. And he has really stepped up Russia's attacks on Ukraine, on civilian infrastructure, on schools, on universities, on vital parts of civilian infrastructure. And we're not even into the winter yet.

Ukrainians fear, and I fear they're right, that Russia's plan is to make Ukrainian cities unlivable and to try to break Ukrainians that way. So far, it hasn't worked, but that hasn't stopped the Kremlin from trying.

Peter Hamby (4:56)

What about the angle that US intelligence is not giving or sharing intelligence with Ukraine as it relates to these missile strikes? Is there any truth there?