US President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a campaign rally at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, Tennessee, US, October 10, 2026. REUTERS/Eric Lee
Conservative writer Andrew McCarthy voted for President Donald Trump three times, but he pulled no punches in blasting Trump’s “imbecilic” policies leading to his deal with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
“Trump’s atrocious oil deal with Vladimir Putin, his friend and America’s foe, is impeachable flim-flam,” said McCarthy. “It’s a fraud on the American people — a desperate, futile attempt to address Trump’s self-inflicted wound of high diesel prices.”
The United States, after all, produces around 5 million barrels of diesel per day, yet consumes less than 4 million barrels per day. This excess makes the U.S. the “world’s top diesel exporter,” while Russia, in stark contrast, has “collapsed” as an exporter, said McCarthy.
“Putting aside the more appalling aspects of this deal — a gift to Putin, requiring no concessions on his part — we are apparently supposed to believe that Russia, whose energy sector is in such disrepair it was importing diesel from South Korea this summer, is going to be our savior exporter,” said McCarthy.
Putin is a war criminal, he added, who scoffs at Trumps pleas of peace after attacking Ukraine. And he “blithely persisted in his barbaric attacks on civilians, even as Trump announced the diesel deal.”
McCarthy said in making this deal Trump is trying to convince voters that he is “taking real steps to reduce the prices his unilaterally imposed policies have caused.” But that’s not going to work because prices will not decrease. In fact, they’ll probability go higher because the war “Trump started against Iran without seeking congressional authorization or public buy-in” is back on the menu. Iran — which is Putin’s ally — has stepped up attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, said McCarthy. And Iran’s Houthi allies are pounding Saudi Arabia and upsetting Red Sea shipments. Meanwhile Trump has not ended “his imbecilic trade war with Canada, our ally and neighbor,” said McCarthy.
“The second reason for doing the diesel deal with Putin is, as ever, corruption,” said McCarthy, who is — again — a three-time Trump voter.
“In early October, the New York Times reported that Trump is working on an even more execrable multibillion-dollar oil deal with Putin: The U.S. would waive sanctions so that an investor group could buy up oil fields, refineries, and gas stations around the world that are owned by Lukoil, the Russian energy giant,” said McCarthy. “The deal has been negotiated by Trump’s aforementioned emissaries, Kushner and Witkoff. Among the major beneficiaries are said to be one of Trump’s major donors (Todd Boehly, who has donated $2 million to Trump political causes) and Middle Eastern executives who have business ties to Trump, Kushner, and Witkoff.”
“What is straightforward, though, statute or no statute, is that the president of the United States is empowering and emboldening a murderous anti-American regime even as it persists in a war of aggression, savage war crimes,” continued McCarthy. “… regardless of whether statutes have been transgressed, President Trump is grossly abusing the executive power entrusted in him.”
