The 'late-game gamble' Trump made that Biden is still fighting: report

Although "a late-game’gamble" Donald Trump "made during his last year in office may be finally paying off," it "may have also set up [President] Joe Biden to deal with the effects of higher gas prices just as he was taking office a year later," according to a Tuesday report published by The Independent.

Per the report, "The near-overnight shutdown of global travel and the implementation of lockdown policies in some countries" due the Covid-19 pandemic "led to a massive downward spiral for world oil prices, which became mired in a trade war between Russia and OPEC [Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries]."

The Independent reports:

Enter Harold Hamm, a supporter of Trump’s from 2016 who backed the president for re-election that year. Hamm, an oil tycoon, led the charge in pushing Trump to respond to this international trade war. Plunging oil prices were on track to devastate the energy economy of Texas — which is a major oil-producing hub, but could not compete with OPEC and Russia’s lower prices. Hamm warned Trump at the time that a collapse of the Lone Star State’s fossil fuel economy would certainly lead to his electoral defeat, as he reasoned that Texas would turn blue for the first time in decades.

It seemed like a far-fetched outcome, but one possibility was much more likely: Hamm’s contributions to the Republican Party, and money from others like him, would dry up alongside Texas’s oil wells. That was a far more worrying prospect. Hamm was described by one energy sector executive as capable of raising $1bn for a candidate and their respective side of the aisle in an election cycle, drawing from his deep connections through the industry.

So Trump attempted avert that outcome. The manner he did so was simple: by convincing OPEC and Russia to cease their price cut fight with a massive shared production cut, one that stabilized prices and dropped production by 9.7m barrels per day. The deal was finally inked in April of that year — but only after Trump reportedtly threatened to end a military partnership with Saudi Arabia over its government’s balking.

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Aside from "meddling in global oil production; most famously," the news outlet notes, "Biden was burdened with carrying out the politically fraught task of ending America’s longest-running war in Afghanistan. Oil prices, which kept climbing through 2021, seemed to reach a peak a year after the 2020 election, only to begin surging once more a few months later when Vladimir Putin and Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine."

As Democrats face "persistent anger about the economy and consumer prices from the electorate, despite the administration’s efforts to combat inflation over the past three years," the MAGA hopeful "continues to see his cash windfall continue," as "Hamm is firmly back in his camp for the 2024 cycle, and according to FEC reports has already donated more than $600,000 to the ex-president’s joint fundraising committee, which shares donations between him, a host of state GOP chapters, and the Republican National Committee (RNC)."

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The Independent's full report is here.