LATIKA M BOURKE: Donald Trump’s Russian diesel deal exposes more than betrayal, it is weakness

As a Presidential candidate, Donald Trump’s great pitch to the world was “peace through strength”.

The unorthodox Republican appeared to have learnt from past US follies overseas and declared no more forever wars.

Remember too, his boast that he alone could end the war in Ukraine in “one day, 24 hours.” All it would take was for voters to evict Joe Biden, under whose watch Russia invaded.

When he, Trump, was returned to the White House, the US would use its superpower status to promote ending conflicts, he said.

This was a mirage.

Mr Trump’s attempts to end the war have resulted in a red-carpet summit for Vladimir Putin, regularly siding with the authoritarian invader and upbraiding Volodymyr Zelensky for his country’s heroic resistance.

His diplomatic “Envoys to Everywhere,” as the veteran US diplomat Richard Haas calls Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, have held multiple rounds of talks and negotiations.

But during my last visit to Kyiv last month, Ukrainians are being terrorised by Chinese-supplied, jet-powered, Iranian-designed drones that have given Russia an upper-hand in its illegal war.

At no point has Mr Trump used his superpower status, or Lindsey Graham’s now-passed sanctions bill, to force Russia to give up its territorial aims over Ukraine. Instead, it is always President Zelensky’s fault that Ukrainians are willing to die to defend their homeland.

In Mr Trump’s mind, Ukrainians should just give in to Russia.

Mr Trump’s umbrage at Ukraine’s refusal to surrender is not new. The world saw it play out in horrifying fashion in February last year during those unforgettable scenes in the White House. He has since vacillated between admiring Ukraine’s defence and blaming it for frustrating his attempts to be named a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

But the US President’s growing weakness has added a new and sinister dimension to Ukraine’s fate.

Along with his failure to end the war in Europe immediately, he has started a new one by bombing Iran in February in a campaign that he said would last weeks.

Eight months later, the conflict has metastasised across the region, with Iran’s proxies in Yemen attacking Saudi Arabia, twice hitting the international airport in Riyadh last night killing 12 and wounding hundreds.

That campaign has eroded US munitions supplies, subsumed military assets previously assigned to the Indo-Pacific and exposed to the world, and, for allies, an uncomfortable truth: President Trump, just like President Putin, whom he so admires, starts wars that he cannot finish.

Unlike Mr Putin, Mr Trump faces voters next month when, at the midterms, Americans cast their verdict on the first half of his second term.

And top of mind will be petrol prices. Per gallon, the cost of gas has subsided from the pandemic highs of US$5 ($A7.16) and, at the start of 2026, was below $3. But since the war in Iran, the prices have risen to above $4. For diesel, the average price per gallon is above $6.

This is because around one-fifth of the world’s supply of crude oil, from which diesel and petrol are made, passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway that Iran could easily close off in the event of an attack — which it promptly did and is why no President before Mr Trump has ever militarily attacked Tehran.

It is therefore no surprise that according to a recent IPSOS poll for Reuters, Americans’ disapproval of the President is at record highs.

And the cost of living is the top concern for both Republican and Democrat voters.

This is why the US President has gone begging to Mr Putin, asking him to immediately export 300,000 tonnes of diesel oil before the midterms. In total, he wants 3 million tonnes. He claimed it was a “massive amount”.

“He’s freeing up a lot of oil for the world; it’s a good thing – by the way, at a very low price,” Mr Trump told reporters.

This would violate the sanctions imposed on Russia because of its illegal invasion of Ukraine. And it undermines the progress Ukraine has been making on the battlefield by targeting Russia’s oil refineries with long-range strikes.

Mr Trump has been demanding Ukraine stop targeting Russian oil, because of the effect the shortage is having on global prices, exacerbated by the war he and Israel started against Iran.

And, according to a statement by the Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Richard Blumenthal, Ron Wyden and Republicans Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis and John Curtis, it is in violation of a law passed by Congress at the start of the war.

“Congress explicitly banned Russian energy imports in 2022 to prevent American dollars from financing Putin’s brutal war against Ukraine. Congress was clear: the US should not import oil from Russia until it ends its aggression against Ukraine and ceases threats against our NATO Allies,” the Senators said in a statement.

“President Trump’s decision to allow Russian diesel imports to the IS runs directly counter to that law.”

President Trump’s willingness to violate the law is no surprise. But for someone who prides himself as such a dealmaker, his concessions to Russia are stunningly bad.

The US would use 300,000 tonnes of diesel oil in less than one day, meaning it would have no impact on overall prices.

Additionally, he did not state what concessions he extracted from Mr Putin in order to raise US sanctions. And the US has many to demand.

Russia, China, Iran and North Korea have all supported the wars, something the US acknowledges and opposes, given it last month sanctioned a Russian shipping company for transferring missiles between Iran and Russia.

But instead of demanding Russia wind down its bombing of Ukrainian civilians, Mr Trump angrily demanded President Zelensky be replaced and resumed praising his friend in the Kremlin. On Sunday, he announced a ceasefire on energy infrastructure that Russia instantly violated by bombing a thermal plant in Kharkiv.

Asked why Mr Trump was apportioning the blame to Ukraine, Mr Zelensky told America’s ABC News: “Because these people can’t find a key, how to stop Putin, because it’s more difficult to stop Putin than to pressure others.”

President Trump likes to think he is a strongman but he is nothing of the sort. It is under his reign that the United States is weakly begging an imperialist invader who is wanted in The Hague for a few hundred thousand tonnes of oil.

This is not peace through strength. It’s realignment for a cheap buck.