"Exposed: The Trump, Putin and Saudi connection to high gas prices"

"It was a double-whammy for two of then-President Donald Trump’s biggest patrons, Vladimir Putin and American fossil-fuel billionaires and their industry: the price of oil was too damn low.

"Between the pandemic-induced collapse in demand for oil and the price
war Saudi Arabia was then fighting with Russia — two of the world’s
largest producers — Putin was being pinched badly. And in America, from Pennsylvania to Texas, oil producers were outright losing money on the
oil they pumped. Gas prices were at record lows, gutting the profits
even of refiners.

So, Trump acted. It seemed inexplicable at the time, but in retrospect
(knowing now how tied to Putin he was) it makes perfect sense.

In the second year of his presidency, Trump had blown up the Iran
nuclear deal that Obama had a hand in fashioning, letting us all think
it was because he was trying to erase Obama’s legacy. But the real and immediate impact of Trump’s decision was to pull almost 3 million
barrels of Iranian oil a day off the world market, boosting profits for
Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US fossil fuel industry."

But that was 2018 and by 2020 prices were again sagging — and thus about
40 percent of the total revenue/income to Russia’s economy was sagging —
as demand dropped because of the pandemic. Saudi Arabia was making the situation worse for Putin, keeping their oil production high to compete
with Russia for worldwide market share, particularly in Chinese oil
markets, and in retaliation for Russia refusing to go along with price-supporting production cuts.

Oil prices had fallen as low as $15 a barrel because Saudi Arabia had
opened their spigots full-on, according to Reuters:

“Despite the agreement to cut a tenth of global production, oil prices continued to fall to historic lows. U.S. oil futures dropped below $0
last week as sellers paid buyers to avoid taking delivery of oil they
had no place to store. Brent futures, the global oil benchmark, fell
towards $15 per barrel - a level not seen since the 1999 oil price crash
– from as high as $70 at the start of the year.”

So Trump took decisive action.

He called up his buddy, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, and essentially threatened that if MBS didn’t cut production (and thus raise worldwide oil prices, which would help out Putin and US
petrobillionaires) the United States would reconsider its
seven-decade-long military support for the kingdom.

As Reuters reported on April 30, 2020, in an article titled Special
Report: Trump told Saudi: Cut Oil Supply or Lose U.S. Military Support:

“Trump delivered the message to the crown prince 10 days before the announcement of production cuts. The kingdom’s de facto leader was so
taken aback by the threat that he ordered his aides out of the room so
he could continue the discussion in private, according to a U.S. source
who was briefed on the discussion by senior administration officials.”

Oil-drenched Republican Senators Kevin Cramer and Dan Sullivan had
drafted legislation to pull US troops out of Saudi Arabia, giving Trump
the club he could wield against the Saudis to help out both Putin and
the US oil industry that was seeing bankruptcies spread across the country.

As Reuters noted, “Support for the measure was gaining momentum amid Congressional anger over the ill-timed Saudi-Russia oil price war.”
Thus, in the last year of his presidency, Trump oversaw the worldwide
cuts in oil production that would lead to today’s prices soaring well
past $130 a barrel.

Which brings us to today, with oil prices soaring. When President Biden
tried to reach out to our allies, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to ask them
to restore the production they’d cut under threat from Trump, both
refused to take his call, according to press reports.

Meteor Blades reports at Daily Kos that The Wall Street Journal laid it out:

“The Saudis have signaled that their relationship with Washington has deteriorated under the Biden administration, and they want more support
for their intervention in Yemen’s civil war, help with their own
civilian nuclear program as Iran’s moves ahead, and legal immunity for
Prince Mohammed in the U.S., Saudi officials said. The crown prince
faces multiple lawsuits in the U.S., including over the killing of
journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

“The Emiratis share Saudi concerns about the restrained U.S. response to recent missile strikes by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen against
the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia, officials said. Both governments are also concerned about the revival of the Iran nuclear deal, which doesn’t
address other security concerns of theirs and has entered the final
stages of negotiations in recent weeks.”

The outcome is predictable. Saudi Arabia and Russia keep oil production
tight to keep oil prices and profits high, while President Biden is
attacked from every direction in the US for high prices at the pump.

Republican politicians grandstand on the issue and hammer it daily into
the news, blaming the increased price of gasoline on a president who’s
trying to both get Iranian oil back on the market and increase Saudi production. The high price of gas and diesel, meanwhile, keep jacking up
US inflation, giving the GOP another lead pipe to hit Democrats over the
head with.

Neither of Biden’s efforts to lower oil prices are working, though, as
the result of Trump’s two gutless actions on behalf of his patrons.

The Iranian talks are bogged down (the Iranians can see what happens to
a country that gives up its nukes just by turning on the news and
looking at Ukraine) and Saudi Arabia wants Biden to come on bended knee
and approve of their slaughter in Yemen, something that would be very
costly to American moral standing in the world.

The result is more money for Putin’s war machine and the Saudi crown
prince, and a significant increase in the chances an
oil-industry-friendly Republican Congress will be installed next year
and a Putin/Saudi-friendly Republican President will win election in 2024.

Trump may be long out of power, but the impact of his corrupt treachery
lives on.

https://www.rawstory.com/high-gas-prices-under-trump/

TB

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