Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the defenders of Ukraine and the entire modern civilization!
Today in the issue:
- Trump demanded G7 country leaders to lift sanctions against Russian oil companies and received a unanimous refusal
- Interview with the 47th President on NBC: Iran wants to make a “deal” with him, but he does not want to make a “deal” with Iran, and Zelensky is the last person he would ask for help
- Trump and the elections: the president pressures Republicans to pass a law preventing a large number of voters from voting.
▶ Another stroke to the portrait of the time, to what is happening these days. On Wednesday, an online meeting of G7 country leaders took place with the participation of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. During it, the 47th US president demanded from the leaders of the other G7 countries and the EU to lift sanctions on Russian oil exports and Russian oil companies. He found himself isolated. The leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan, and the European Commission president categorically refused to ease any sanctions imposed on Russia.
Notably, there were no official statements from the White House press service about this meeting.
▶ On Saturday, Trump gave a phone interview to NBC channel host Kristen Welker. He said, in particular: “Iran wants to make a deal, but I don’t want to do it as the terms are not good enough yet. Any agreement must be very reliable.”
When asked what exactly these terms might include, the president refused to go into details. “I don’t want to tell you that,” he replied.
Trump also expressed doubts over whether Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive: “I don’t even know if he is alive. So far, no one has been able to show him. I hear rumors that he is not alive; and if he is, he should do something very reasonable for his country – namely capitulate.”
Trump refused to name a specific Iranian figure he would support as the future leader of the country, instead saying: “There are people living today who would make great leaders for the future of this country.”
The 47th president also commented on his decision to temporarily ease some sanctions on Russia’s oil sector amid the rapid rise in global energy prices:
“I want the world to have oil. I want there to be oil. Sanctions will be reinstated once the crisis is over.”
When asked about possible help in the war with Iran from Ukraine, Trump stated that “the last person we need help from is Volodymyr Zelensky.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, according to the Israeli news portal Ynet, is planning to speak with Zelensky to discuss cooperation with Ukraine and the possibility of adopting Ukrainian experience in countering attacks from Iranian drones “Shahed.”
Trump addressed, in a tweet written on Saturday morning, the UK, France, Japan, South Korea, and… China, asking them to send their warships to ensure navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. It’s curious why the 47th president made such a request to China, an ally of Iran, but not to another ally of Iran—Russia.
As Trump himself mentioned in an interview he gave to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein back in 1989, he is guided by impulses in everything and only consults with taxi drivers and construction workers (the interview is published in Bob Woodward’s latest book “War”).
He doesn’t take taxis now; whether he communicates with the construction workers building his “ballroom” at the White House is unknown. As for impulses, we observe them every day…
By the way, Iran has paralyzed shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, but something tells us that if any Chinese tanker needs to pass through the Strait to load Iranian oil and then return to set course for China, it will be able to do so. Since none of the warring parties will attack it.
Practically from the moment Trump halted (for now, a month) part of the sanctions, more oil hasn’t entered the global market. The EU stands firm that it will not resume purchasing Russian oil transported by sea, nor oil products made from it outside the EU. However, Russia will be able to sell oil to India and other Global South countries without using shadow schemes, earning more money both because the oil price has surged by over 40% in the past two weeks and because additional expenses on these very shadow schemes will not be necessary.
▶ Donald Trump is preparing for the congressional elections. Despite any momentum, he understands well that with his current real unpopularity (he is the most unpopular second-term president in history except for Nixon) and the unpopularity of all aspects of his policies, rising unemployment, the visibly worsening economic situation, inflation growth, and skyrocketing gasoline prices at pumps, the Republican Party could face a crushing defeat in the November 3 election.
The price of gasoline in the US is the most reliable indicator of the mood of non-politicized, non-ideologized voters who suddenly find that refueling a car costs $12-15 more today than two weeks ago. For a country where most people travel exclusively by car, this is indeed the most significant indicator of average people’s mood. And in people’s minds, the government is always to blame for high gasoline prices. And the government is the president and his party.
Especially when this president won the elections precisely because he promised to lower gasoline prices and supermarket prices, and to end US involvement in overseas wars. He promised but did the exact opposite. If that’s the case, voters should vote for the opposition party.
The ruling party always loses votes in midterm congressional elections and thus always loses seats in the House of Representatives. After all, no president can fulfill everything he promised voters. Some voters feel betrayed and vote for the opposition party in the midterm elections.
However, the situation is much worse now for Trump and Republicans. They promised voters what they wanted to hear but did the exact opposite. Therefore, they can expect nothing but mass voting against them.
Just the latest example: Early elections for the House of Representatives in Georgia took place on Tuesday. In a very “red,” absolutely Republican, rural district where a seat in the House of Representatives became vacant after the departure from Congress of former staunch Trump supporter and now equally staunch opponent Marjorie Taylor Greene. And the most votes in this election went to Democrat Sean Harris – 37.3%.
Since in Georgia to win an election you need to get at least 50% + 1 vote, a second round will be held. It is clear that Harris’ Republican opponent in the second round is likely to win (in the first round, a whole group of Republicans competed to show who is more loyal to the beloved president). But the fact remains that Republicans are losing votes even in absolutely “red,” traditionally reliable districts for them. Greene received 64.4% of the votes in this district in the 2024 elections.
Trump fully understands this. He also understands that congressional elections cannot be canceled or postponed. There is no legal way to do this in the USA. Elections were held during the Civil War of 1861-1865 and during both world wars. Any hypothetical order by Trump to cancel or postpone the elections would be immediately halted by the courts. And he understands this as well.
Therefore, he demands that Republicans in Congress pass the so-called “SAVE America Act.” The essence of what he wants is the re-registration of all voters, who would need to prove again that they have US citizenship, a ban on mail voting except for the disabled and military personnel, and the requirement to present federally recognized photo ID at the polling station (currently voters are identified by their signature).
Why does Trump need this? Definitely not to ensure non-citizens can’t vote. This is already impossible. To register as a voter, one must be a US citizen. Registration through fraud or forgery by non-citizens is a criminal offense and is incredibly rare, thus detected by authorities followed by criminal proceedings against the guilty party.
Trump needs this to significantly reduce the number of voters participating in the elections. Many people will not be able to re-register. About 50% of citizens do not have passports simply because they don’t need them—they do not travel abroad. If you don’t have a passport, your proof of citizenship is a birth certificate or naturalization certificate. However, for example, most women take their husband’s surname upon marriage. The birth certificate is in one surname, but now the surname is different. So, bring another document proving the name change. All this, like the re-registration itself, is a big hassle. The 47th president counts on many people, especially those living in big cities (and, therefore, more likely to vote for Democrats), being unwilling to go through all this. And, therefore, they will not participate in the elections.
The same applies to the so-called “photo ID.” For most Americans, this document is a driver’s license. However, there’s a catch. Not all residents of large cities drive. For instance, in New York City, not all residents are drivers, which means they likely don’t have a driver’s license. Furthermore, in some states, a driver’s license is not recognized by the federal government as a “valid ID” according to federal criteria. Under the law, states are now issuing new licenses that meet the “valid ID” criteria, but old licenses remain valid for driving until they expire.
And therefore, the focus is the same – to leave a significant number of residents of large cities outside the doors of polling stations.
The same applies to the mail-in voting ban demanded by Trump. Elections in the USA are held on Tuesdays, which is a working day. Mail-in voting is very popular as it eliminates the need to solve the problem of how to combine work with voting. This problem is particularly relevant for residents of large cities and their suburbs.
The House of Representatives, with only Republican votes, has already passed one version of this bill. Trump now demands to tighten the requirements of the bill and have it adopted in this enhanced version urgently. He threatened not to sign any bills passed by Congress until this bill is passed. If Republicans do not lose two votes in the House of Representatives, they can pass such a bill with their minimum majority. However, its passage in the Senate under the current Senate rules is absolutely out of the question. To open and close debates on a bill, 60 votes are required (this is the filibuster rule). Republicans have 53 votes against the Democrats’ 47. Not a single Democrat will vote for this bill.
Trump persistently demands that Senate Republicans change its rules to pass bills (specifically to open and close debates on them) by a simple majority vote, meaning to abolish the filibuster rule. This rule ensures the need to consider the demands of the opposition party (at least a part of it) when passing bills and prevents the majority party from passing what is absolutely unacceptable to the minority party.
Will the Republicans change the rules? One of the former “old,” “classic” Republicans (now trying to portray himself as an even bigger Trumpist than Trump himself), Texas Senator Cornyn, who is not just up for reelection this year but is currently competing for the chance to continue his political life in the Republican primaries with loyal MAGA-supporting Texas Attorney General Paxton, published an article in the New York Post. In the article, he wrote that he has always fought against any attempts to eliminate the filibuster rule. But now, at such a decisive moment for the country, he believes the rule needs to be abolished.
Cornyn hopes that such an article will win favor with Trump, who will support him, not Paxton, in the second round of the Republican primaries in Texas.
However, this article also shows that among Republicans, the idea of abolishing the filibuster rule is being actively discussed, allowing them to turn the Senate into a machine that produces everything dictated by the beloved president from the White House.
To date, there are at least four Republican senators—former longtime Republican leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell, Thom Tillis, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins—who have stated they are against abolishing the filibuster rule.
In other words, as of today, the Republicans do not have the votes to change the rules, even if all except these four senators vote for such a proposal.
Tillis and McConnell stated that they will not run for the Senate again. Murkowski is not dependent on Trump; she is very popular in her home state of Alaska. Trump has already tried to oppose her in the primaries with his candidate, but his attempt ended in failure. Collins is up for reelection this year in her blue state of Maine. She is also not dependent on Trump, as she does not need his support in the elections. On the contrary, he can only hinder her, which would mean losing an important Senate seat for the Republicans. Collins is the only Republican in the Senate representing a “blue” state.
Trump will still try to pressure these four senators, directly or indirectly. Because he understands that if he fails to eliminate a significant portion of voters, primarily in big cities, he faces defeat in the congressional elections and significant problems coexisting with a sharply oppositional Congress, from which he can only expect investigations and impeachments for his cabinet members and himself, as well as the passing of bills that will undo his policies in all areas.
The end of the story titled “Fear: Trump in the White House” © (the title of Bob Woodward’s book published in 2018) is 1043 days away.
Thank you to everyone who read this. Take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Take care of each other, help each other. Health to everyone.
Ultimately, what happens in the world depends on us. Whether we fight evil, do good, remain mere observers, passively wait, and believe that someone else somewhere will decide for us, or fight evil and do everything possible for good to prevail.
We must not allow evil to prevail. The victory of evil will mean the end of the world we live in. We cannot allow this. Especially now.
Ukrainian Friends, I embrace and love you all. Please take care of each other.
Ukraine exists and will always exist.
And evil will be defeated and punished. It certainly will be.
