On Friday 9 October, Jeffrey Epstein's former best friend Donald Trump, upset at not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, made the shocking announcement that he would help fund Russia's war machine by allowing Russia to sell 35.5 million barrels of Russian diesel on international markets.
This extraordinary decision came three weeks after Trump had signed the "Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026," which the White House said, authorized and expanded "statutory sanctions, tariffs, and prohibitions on Russia" while extending "existing sanctions on Iran."
The decision, made after a phone call between Trump and Putin, was a surprise to negotiators from Ukraine, Europe and the U.S. who had gathered in Miami in a new attempt to end Russia's war, but went home instead after hearing the news that Trump was now intent on extending the war indefinitely and delivering more death and destruction to Ukraine.
Trump claimed on Truth Social that diesel prices would come down "IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST!" although experts said the deal would only help Russia without making a meaningful impact on prices.
The reality, as Heather Cox Richardson writes on Substack, is that "after more than a decade of pretending that he is not associated with Russia and that he would honor the U.S. national security position of support for Ukraine and our European allies, Trump is openly backing Russia’s president Vladimir Putin."
In her article, Richardson unpacks the history of Trump's — and Paul Manafort's — dubious dealings with Putin. She also remind us that:
Putin has behaved like someone who has a strong hand over Trump. In August 2025, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov showed up at the Alaska meeting wearing a sweatshirt with the Cyrillic letters “CCCP,” which translates to USSR, suggesting that the Soviet Union had won the Cold War after all.
"At this point," she concludes, "how much more evidence is necessary to assess that Trump has undermined U.S. national security and is working for Russia? And how much longer will Republicans in Congress continue to protect him as he does it?"
Previously on Unprecedented:
14 Mar 2026: Only One Winner
Only One Winner
“Looks like we fought Iran and Russia won”
Richard Hine
4 Mar 2025: How America Ends
How America Ends
Everything is in place to trigger a crisis, crash the dollar, declare martial law, and cancel future elections.
Richard Hine
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