Trump’s Own Energy Secretary Just Contradicted His Russia Story

crown coins winning never sounded so good what would you do if you won big at crown coins casino real people win real prices every single day hi this is michael from georgia i won 40k and finally renovated my home visit crown coins.com sign up in seconds enter code crown and get a free lucky wheel bonus you may win up to 10 000 sweeps coins crown coins.com that's c-r-o-w-n coins.com no purchase needed code valid for new users only void were prohibited by law 18 plus terms and conditions apply crown coins casino this is matt rogers from las culturistas with matt rogers and bowen yang this is bowen yang from las culturistas with matt rogers and bowen yang you know when people try a new food and suddenly it's like okay hold on i got a new favorite food that's the reaction a lot of people are having when they first try cupi mayo yeah it's the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle you've probably seen it at the grocery store and this mayo is different most mayonnaise uses whole eggs cupi only uses egg yolks which gives it this rich umami flavor it's smoother deeper almost buttery once people try it they start putting it on everything egg sandwiches fries burgers chefs use it restaurants use it people who really care about flavor use it put it on just about anything then you'll understand cupi the original japanese mayonnaise hey everybody it's me sam stein managing out at the bulwark and i'm here with will salatin i'm in charlotte for our live show tonight we got coming on i think it's live stream for members only so check it out if you can hopefully this goes up before then and you don't feel like you missed it out will you're in dc how's it going over there oh my god sam oh my god it's uh it's it's it's not great in dc it's really bad in keeve right now that's where it's really bad it is quite bad we've had a weekend of pretty horrifying uh uh breakthroughs uh basically we're selling diesel to russia we're lifting sanctions on russia we may or may not be restricting starlink we may or may not be sharing intel with ukraine it's caused a bit of a rupture uh for some republicans it's kind of weird spot because elon musk is the biggest donor he will be chiefly responsible for them winning the senate and obviously donald trump is the head of the party and they can't cross donald trump but some of them are a few of them are i should say there was this tweet though that really tickled you uh in a bad way i should say and it's from john cornyn who remind i just want to mind fucks he has nothing left to lose he lost his primary he's got about four months left uh in his time as senator he put up this with respect to the lifting of sanctions with russia he said lindsey would be appalled trump signs order exempting russia from sanctions and the reference here is that trump a couple weeks ago weeks signed into law the lindsey graham sanctions act which would basically allow him more authorities to apply sanctions on russia and the primary trading partners with russia but everyone well not everyone katherine rampell and a bunch of people at the time said oh my god this is a disaster it's actually going to give trump a lot of leeway to apply sanctions to cc fits who knows what he's going to do them and sure enough what does trump do he over the weekend exempted russian energy from sanctions and so you're upset about this not because of what trump did although i'm sure you are but because of the implication that lindsey would be appalled why okay this lionization of lindsey graham that he is the great hero okay lindsey graham did support ukraine absolutely right the problem is that lindsey graham has made a lifelong not lifelong decade-long corrupt bargain to support donald trump on the theory that lindsey could somehow manage trump on the issues lindsey cared about so lindsey knew that trump had a thing for putin he's known this all along right but i'm going to put this autocrat trump in the white house remember sam in 2022 when republicans had a chance to move on from trump lindsey graham stood with other people in south carolina he said i am behind donald trump he helped donald trump regain control of the party lindsey graham has been engineering trump's comeback since 2021 since right after the impeachment right he's i'm going to get you to cpac i'm going to get you back on the saddle he puts trump in charge okay then then he he passes this he authors this sanctions bill in which as katherine wrote he gives trump all the authority though this was not a the president has to do the sanctions bill this was the president gets to decide whether he's going to do the sanctions so lindsey did all of that and lindsey had a conceit that he was going to manage trump and make sure that trump didn't betray ukraine and then what happens lindsey dies he dies so he had an inflated sense of his own importance and it turns out he had an inflated sense of his own immortality so he's gone and everything that he set up has come to fruition trump is president trump has control of the sanctions trump waived them that is all on lindsey i guess it's hard to know the answer to this question but as someone who's chronicled more than basically anyone in this business well if you were alive right now how do you think you would be managing this current situation will we be in this current situation oh lindsey would be doing what all these other senators are talking about oh oh we need to like talk to the president he's got many days now to like you know think about whether he wants to like re-engage these sanctions so that's what he would do he'd be over at the white house he'd be joshing with trump he'd be trying to play golf with him he'd be trying to cajole him back and the problem is that it's always a struggle with trump because they all know he has a russia problem he has a thing for putin and they're always working against that i guess now i want to have you psychoanalyze trump he has a russia problem uh obviously he is biased towards putin i think that's fair to say at this point he also has a midterm problem he needs more oil on the markets and possibly he would like the russians to i don't know help him out with the election whether you know deliberately or you know in the shadows right so there's this new york times article that the russian bot networks are starting to ramp up with a couple weeks to go for the elections obviously they've been up front about the desire to get more diesel on the market so they can get down diesel prices and oil prices um is this just trump trying to get through the next couple weeks or is this just trump siding with putin because he has more affinity and affection for an autocrat than he does for zelensky or is it both so trump has the the affection for putin i mean trump again always thinks of himself as part of the russians and part of the country club of dictators so he loves you know putin and she and all the anybody with power he's that's in the background but i don't think that explains this sam i think this particular thing is putin has convinced trump i mean trump's a mercenary so if you have something to sell that trump needs which in this case is the diesel trump's he's totally going to listen to you what trump doesn't have is any scruples and again lindsey graham and all these guys they know this now they have scruples they they know that we shouldn't be supporting russia but they put in charge this president who has none and so it i mean if zelensky had more to sell to to if he could give trump a lot of minerals or something trump would listen to that because he's all about the money it's like venezuela we go in we take oil ukraine we'll make a deal with you if you'll give us uh minerals russia what you got for us oh you got diesel great we'll waive the sanctions we'll buy your diesel sure yeah i suppose you're right but then i come back to the other point which is that you could get almost all of that from canada and yet we're in a trade war with canada and so maybe there's just something about trump admiring putin and i will also note that there was a very conspicuous phone call between putin and trump trump had sort of talked about oh it's his birthday coming up i'm going to give him a call and so like i just think there's just a personal affection that the guy has for putin now you mentioned that the republicans are no in their right and i think some of them have come out and said so but not everybody right like the true sycophants the cabinet members the leadership who feel like they have to play along and spin this to the best of their abilities they have come out and they've tried to spin this so i want to play a clip of energy secretary chris wright saying something so contradictory to trump himself that my jaw fell to the fucking floor that a discount sold at a long delay so president trump waived just on diesel exports and what's the one thing russia has not been able to export over the last month or so diesel because they're short of diesel the world is short of diesel and president trump is relentlessly looking for ways to bring cost relief to americans so if russia can bring additional diesel to the market and export it it would benefit american consumers it would benefit the world but their only way to get there is to is to reduce their conflict with the iran i mean with with ukraine or to make an energy ceasefire so they could reduce their conflict with iran as and they could stop supplying the iranians with oil and that would be helpful but that's not what he meant the reason i i was flabbergasted by this is because it's completely in contrast to what trump himself said when he announced the diesel deal and the announcement of the diesel which he did on truth social trump said that quote russia will immediately that's his words immediately supply over three hundred thousand tons of diesel fuel to the american and global marketplace another five hundred thousand tons during the month of november and a million tons immediately thereafter so either trump's lying when he announced that or chris writes line when he says that russia has no diesel to export it cannot be both no it certainly can't remember trump's rationale was i'm doing this so we can have diesel to lower the prices which means that the diesel is available now chris writes claim on two shows today was they don't have the diesel available. This is not actually helping Russia. because all their diesel is occupied with the war in Ukraine and they would have to somehow back off the war in order to have the diesel to sell to us, which, as you point out, completely contradictory to what Trump is saying. Now, Chris Wright says nobody understands diesel like I do. I'm the only one. I understand these sanctions and I understand the difference between the diesel and the regular crude. And so if so, Sam, if Chris Wright's telling the truth, first of all, all the Republican senators don't understand it because none of them are saying that. Secondly, Donald Trump, who just who truth this this garbage about how this is going to help, he doesn't understand it either, which, again, is totally plausible that Trump is the dumbest of all these people and that he's cutting this deal thinking that the diesel is available when it's not. I don't know where the truth is, but I do know that, as you said, the administration's various rationales do not add up together. Yeah. And Chris Wright is the only one in the administration debuting this line of argument. And no one else has said, no, this isn't actually going to help right now. It's an incentive. It's a carrier for Russia to stop the war. Literally, no one has said that. And it also accompanied, I should say, the announcement that Trump said of an energy ceasefire, which implicit in that is that they need to stop all this fighting between the Ukrainians and Russians on the energy infrastructure so they can get more diesel on the market. So this is just, I don't know, it's improv. The other one who tried to come up with the rationalization was Mike Johnson, Speaker of the Democratic Party. And I think it's so much rationalization as like a self-rationalization, I thought. Let's listen to this. So I know the president's evaluating this as he does everything else. He look, he has two major objectives. As you know, Larry, every day he wants to keep America safe and he wants to bring down the cost of living for every American. He thinks outside the box with creative ideas all the time and he carefully evaluates those. So I think the right decision will be made here in the end. Creative thinking. All right. Thank you. This phrase that they and again, we've heard this before. He thinks outside the box. What they mean is, you know, what other metaphors out of left field, you know, off the deep end. Like it's this what they're all. It's so funny, Sam, because they're all thinking the same thing. What the hell? This is LeVar Arrington from Two Pros and a Cup of Joe. Let me tell you about Xero. That's X-E-R-O. Xero is a financial management platform that loves giving small business owners the clarity to have the confidence in their numbers. It puts accounting payments, payroll and analytics all in one place. So you always have one clear picture of your business with visual dashboards. Xero makes it easy to understand your cash flow. You know exactly what's coming in and what's going out so you can make smarter decisions that can help grow your business. Xero's AI can even offer insights to help you make your best move. It's powerful enough for an accountant and simple enough for an entrepreneur. Xero's AI can offer insights to help you make your best move. Xero is the all in one to get business done. Learn more at Xero.com. Winning never sounded so good. What would you do if you won big? At Crown Coins Casino, real people win real prizes every single day. Hi, this is Michael from Georgia. I won 40k and finally renovated my home. Visit crowncoins.com. Sign up in seconds, enter code crown and get a free lucky wheel bonus. You may win up to 10,000 sweeps coins. That's C-R-O-W-N coins.com. No purchase needed. Code valid for new users only. Void when prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. And so then they come up with this phrase out of the box, which means I don't know what the hell he's thinking, but it's creative, right? It's creative. Government points for creativity. Yeah. It's like, I mean, I mean, it's nuts, right? But it's so far outside the box. But then I got to say one thing about that interview. So about four minutes after Johnson says this whole thing about Trump thinking out of the box, he's like, I don't know what the hell he's thinking. He's like, I don't know what the hell he's thinking. He's like, he gives his pitch for why you should reelect Republicans to control Congress. He says, and this is a line that he has used all over the country. I've been watching him. Quote, you have to keep the grownups in charge, steady hands at the wheel. That's why Republicans have to keep control of Congress. This whole thing about Trump thinking outside the box is, this goes all the way back to the, you know, Dan Dresner's toddler in chief joke that like, he is a toddler. He's nuts. He's erratic. He's childish. He's juvenile. He doesn't understand anything. And then the pitch from Republicans is, oh, keep our party in charge because we're the grownups. It's manifestly not true with all this out of the box, out of the box. It's also contradictory, right? It's like, ah, we got to be steady, stable, but also let's do these crazy ideas. Let's think a little bit outside the box, you know? It's, it's, yeah. Well, I mean, they have a lot to answer for, obviously. It's painful to watch this all transpire. Um, I will say, these are not outside the box ideas. Um, they're, they're bad ideas. We know they're bad ideas. Like one of the, one of the things that they had pitched or was floated through the New York Times this weekend was that they were going to ease, the administration was going to ease the ability of Europeans to buy Russian gas, even though a year ago they had admonished the Europeans for buying Russian gas. And so it does strike me that they're just throwing whatever they can against the wall and hoping something sticks, but nothing is right. And I guess the other thing I have to say, which I don't think people should ever forget. And you should always mention this when you talk about Trump and Ukraine and Russia, he promised to solve this in one day. He did. Like we're here because he didn't do what he said he was going to do. Not that I believe him or anyone with a brain believed him, but some people did believe that he could solve this in one day because he's the expert deal maker. Right. And, and, and let's not forget that. What was it a few days ago, a week ago, he declared that that boat, that they had agreed to a, an energy. And they're all like, what the hell he said. And then he was asked, he's like, why, how did they didn't say they did? What is the rationale for saying they agreed to it? He said, because I told them they agreed to it. Yeah. Like that. So yeah, it's no. Okay. So, so he one upped himself, right? Because to be fair, Sam. So the thing right before the 2024 election was I'll solve it in one day. That was at least in the future. So now he's advanced to claiming that it's already solved, right? I have a ceasefire deal. In fact, neither side had agreed. So it's all lies up and it's all, man. I don't know if you saw this one. It's going to meet the press. He's in an obviously impossible spot, right? So he needs to get energy. He needs to stop. Sorry. He needs to get Trump to do Intel sharing. He needs Starlink to get back up. And yet he's watching as Trump also basically hampers his entire country and risks the war. And so you're either going to have to admonish Trump or beg somehow to get Trump back on your side. And it's, I just, I honestly don't know what to do. I've seen some people say, well, you know, he's playing it all wrong at this critical time, but what else is he supposed to do? Just let his country get bombed to smithereens? I don't really know. Yeah, no, he, I mean, he has no, he was basically saying, I mean, they asked him, is America still your ally? And he's like, well, America, yes. Well, what about president Trump? Well, I hope he was like, I hope that we can get Trump back on. So, so what I think is going to happen here, Sam is Mike Johnson. I mean, all these guys, Lindsey Graham's not available anymore to do the golf game. So it's going to have to be other senators or it's going to be the speaker there, there, there will be people trying to lobby Trump to change this. But the problem, as you know, Sam is we're getting very close to the election and Trump has it in his head that he needs to lower prices and he's not smart enough to understand the timetable. So he's not going to want to let, he's not going to want to let up on the sanctions and the, and the diesel deal. And before the election, because he's going to, he wants to look like he is trying to help lower energy prices. Right. But, and it goes even, it's even worse than that because it's Trump and then it's Elon. And you have the, by magnet orders of magnitude, the largest donor on the Republican side, a man who single-handedly might will Ken Paxton across the finish line. So he'll be basically own a Senator, but also keep the majority for the Republicans. They all know it. And they, they can't bring themselves to admonish this man because, you know, they need his money. And then simultaneously, the Europeans are like, well, if Starlink is just going to willy nilly cut off a high-speed internet connectability to the Ukrainians, then we need to get a different system than Starlink because we can't just rely on Elon. And then there's news reported today that the, the, the white house is threatening Europe with like severe economic consequences if they do that. So you have the U S government put it, putting its finger on the scale for a private company because the head of the private company is the biggest donor by an incredible amount. Yeah. Yeah. So, so we have the problem of Trump and his relationship with Putin. We have the Elon problem, a whole separate thing where he doesn't like Zelensky and as you know, clearly like, and now we have the intersection of the two, which is Elon is actually giving the white house plausible deniability on the Starlink problem. Right? So they're saying like Marco Rubio, these guys are like, Hey, it's not us. We're not telling him what to do. We don't know. And they're saying like, Hey, it's not us. We don't know. And we're coming after you when we start investigating, because in addition to all the Trump stuff, and we now have Republicans talking about investigating Trump's relationship with Russia, weirdly after they said it was a hoax. We also have the question of what is Elon Musk doing? And as are we going to be able to get the records of a private company and what went on behind the scenes to put the squeeze on Ukraine and Sam, this coincides what Musk is doing with the Starlink coincides with Trump threatening Zelensky saying you're not doing enough. You're attacking or we need a new election in Ukraine. So it's hard for me to believe Elon is doing what he's doing without some approval from the White House. No, it's impossible. Well, I guess the answer to all this is that we need Darlene Graham to step up her game. That's basically the only way this gets off. No, I'm just joking. That's not going to happen. Folks, that's Will Salatin. He is the chief chronicler of Lindsey Graham. So if you ever need a Lindsey Graham take, this is your man. I'm Sam Stein, manager at The Borg. Folks, we have a show tonight in Charlotte that I mentioned. We also have a show in Atlanta on Tuesday, and there's only like less than 50 tickets left. So if you're in the area, it's going to be a good time. I would go and get a ticket. You can go to bulwark.com slash events to get a ticket. And also, if this is out on Sunday, this is our last day for the 30% off deal on Substack. It ends at midnight tonight. So if you want to get a great deal, you're pointing at me, but if you want to get a great deal, go now. Subscribe to The Borg to get 30% off. What do you want to say? I wanted to say, everybody, go to Atlanta and see Sam. Do it for Eric Schmidt. Go to Atlanta and see Sam. I'm not going to. I'm not going to a Hawks game down there like Jack Smith. All right. I'm not going to be, you know, surreptitiously checking out the Hawks and meeting with Fannie Willis. Don't worry. It's a live show. Nothing under the table. All right. Well, thank you so much, man. Really appreciate it, buddy. Take care. Until now, the data your AI depends on has been trapped behind ever increasing cloud fees. Wasabi created hot cloud. Storage and is redefining cloud storage for the AI era. Delivering simple, predictable cloud storage for AI analytics, media and more. Your data is free to move fast to access and ready when your AI needs it. Hidden fees add up fast as AI workloads grow. Wasabi's flat pricing eliminates all of it. One rate, no surprises. Learn more and try now for free at Wasabi.com. Wasabi, the AI storage cloud. Proud partner of the iHeart Podcast Network. You know that moment when everything lines up, when life gives you the green light and you just go. That's the 2026 Toyota Camry. No hesitation, no friction. Just a car that's right there with you. Ready, responsive, in control the whole way through. Because when it's your moment, you shouldn't have to think twice. The 2026 Toyota Camry. Go like you mean it. Test drive at your local Toyota dealer or visit Toyota.com today. Toyota, let's go places. See packages and options at Toyota.com for future availability. Crown Cords Casino. Hi, this is Chelsea from Dallas. I just hit the jackpot. Won over 1,500,000 K. CrownCoins.com. That's C-R-O-W-N, coins.com. No purchase needed. Crown Coins Casino.