Before we get into once of the most disgraceful acts in the history of the American presidency, a reminder: Join us Sunday night at 6 p.m. ET for our Second Sunday Zoom call with paying subscribers!
* Here’s the mother of all Friday afternoon news dumps, care of President Donald Trump on his own social media app:
I have just concluded a highly successful discussion with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, wherein it was agreed that Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace, another 500,000 Tons during the month of November, and 1,000,000 Tons immediately thereafter. Additionally, based on the condition of their Diesel Refineries, Russia will then deliver, within a short period of time, 3,000,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel. Between our TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz, and this great announcement on Russian Energy, Diesel Prices for Americans and, indeed, the World, will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST! Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority. This is a very big and important announcement.
This is a jaw-dropping reversal of American foreign policy. The U.S. has maintained a ban on Russian energy imports since Putin launched his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As recently as three weeks ago, Trump signed into law a measure that slaps up to 100 percent tariffs on countries that … import Russian fuel. The delivery amounts are not very significant—that initial 2.25 million barrels amounts to 16 hours of U.S. consumption; also we have a net surplus of 1.5 million barrels of diesel per day. But the principle of the agreement, along with dangled offers to sell parts of the Russian giant Lukoil to investors that just so happen to be in business with lead American negotiator Jared Kushner, give the White House a direct rooting interest in the fortunes of Russian refineries. Which Ukraine has been droning.
Sure enough, Trump said today that it’s time for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to go:
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Saturday, he said the United States had told Ukraine, “you can do whatever you want to Russia. Don’t hit the refineries because that’s a world problem that’s caused.”
[Zelensky], he said, “wants to make problems for the world.” He added, “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
“He wants to make problems for the world,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Zelensky. “He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers with diesel fuel because Russia supplies a large portion of the diesel fuel throughout the world.”
Other choice quotes include, “I suggest they get a new leader, who can make a deal. Because he could have made many deals, and for some reason, he never does.”
There is zero chance this will be good politics for Trump, as he faces an already knee-buckling midterm referendum on his misrule. The American public sides overwhelmingly with Ukraine over Russia—62 percent to 2 percent in this YouGov poll from April. A Pew Research survey that same month showed 84 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Putin, 83 percent have an unfavorable view of Russia, and 51 percent consider Russia to be an enemy; meanwhile 50 percent have a favorable view of Zelensky, and just 32 percent have confidence that Trump can make good decisions about the war. Elected Republicans who have blasted the diesel deal include Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Rep. Don Bacon, and Rep. Michael McCaul.
Trump has consistently blamed Zelensky, more than Putin, for starting, let alone failing to negotiate the end of, Putin’s war of territorial conquest on the European continent. As recently as today he reiterated the narcissistic and delusional idea that “If the [2020] election weren’t rigged, I would have been president, and that war would have never started.” His historically conflict-of-interest-riddled negotiators for a historically conflict-of-interest-riddled White House are offering sweetheart deals to the most order-threatening dictator on the planet while the boss agitates to get the heroic victim canned. To the extent that “we” are represented by the executive branch of the federal government, we are becoming the baddies.
Former Fifth guests who have added value to this discussion include Episode #569 veteran David Frum, in this piece for The Atlantic; plus Scott Lincicome (#479 & #499), in a T-shirt-reaffirming tweet. You should obviously take this opportunity to listen or re-listen to our Members Only #348 discussion with oil markets guy Marshall Adkins, and I will also non-humbly add my August 2025 Reason piece on Trump’s dictatorships-and-double-standards when it comes to Putin, Zelensky, and (of course!) Saudi Arabia.
* Those of you who were content with the free tease for M.O. #349 with New York Times necrologist Sam Roberts, author of Are They Dead Yet?: The Art of the Obit, are missing out on what is by acclamation one of our best episodes in a while. Here’s another free taste:
My own obits, or at least words-typed-on-the-occasion-of-deaths, include: Hunter S. Thompson, Gerald Ford, Cathy Seipp, Václav Havel, Andrew Breitbart, Lou Reed, Miloš Forman, Milan Kundera, Brian Wilson, Dan Grossman, Brian Doherty, and our very own Andrew “Busty” Wimsatt.
* Let’s go early to our Comment of the Week, the selection of which is a rather blatant attempt to encourage similar behavior. Thank you, L Brown:
Thanks very much for this interview; did not disappoint!
Some links:
“Graham Mason” obituary
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1390221/Graham-Mason.html
Obituary of Jack Garman, the 24-year-old NASA Engineer referenced by Sam, who saved the Moon Landing.
Obituary of Bill Harris
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/us/bill-harris-dead.html
Excerpt from Sam’s book:
https://longreads.com/2026/08/11/obituaries-new-york-times-sam-roberts/
* Great to see a bunch of Fif’ faithful this week at The Reason Roundtable’s 10-year anniversary show in NYC! In advance, I wrote up a lil’ institutional history; here’s the show itself, featuring an intro by our dear friend Kennedy (#37):
* Moynihan on his Report this week interviewed the Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney about his new film, Musk.
* Kmele and the Tanglers did some Midterm Madness-style forecasting this week:
* Speaking of the midterms, here’s a Paley Center for the Media panel discussion I participated in on Oct. 1:
* Fif’-related events: Oct. 31 is my “American Patriotism at 250” panel at the University of Austin. Nov. 6 the lot of us will be closing the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s sold-out Soapbox 26 conference in Philly. Nov. 12 we’ll be doing some post-midterms breakdown at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Finally, Nov. 13-14 is the 100% unofficial Dallas Meetup of Fifth Column listeners.
Another Reason event I heartily recommend is the Oct. 12 NYC world premiere of Jim Epstein’s terrific new doc, Escaping Venezuela. Here’s the trailer:
* Beloved pals and Fifdom community stalwarts Chaya Leah Sufrin and Yael Bar tur of Ask a Jew fame have TOTALLY SOLD OUT, by which I mean they’ve joined Dan Senor’s Ark Media juggernaut, which means extra podcasts, but also they changed their dang name, to Chosen People Problems. Their first “professional” episode featured Douglas Murray (#390):
* Did I intend to smush several more items into this Firehose? Indeed I did. But sometimes you have to wake up at the crack o’ death to fly to Miami w/ your chilluns, and so here we are.
Sendoff: Freddie Jackson, man. This is exactly what ‘80s R&B sounded like. What a voice.
As if we needed more evidence that the president is a huge, despicable piece of shit.
As low an opinion as I have of Trump, even I did not think he would flame out in such spectacular fashion. He's lost whatever mojo he once had. It's hard to believe this is the same guy whose rallies commanded such attention in 2016.