TAT readers,
Today’s essay is a very sensitive topic for veterans and combat veterans, including me. I’ll do my best to carefully layout my case, but do not be surprised if you occasionally encounter my deep frustration and disappointment with every single Republican that still supports this treasonous administration, and their spineless elected representatives. I could never have imagined that I would one day perceive roughly a third of Americans as traitors and fake patriots… but here we are.
Ground zero for this essay is Trump’s reported deal to purchase diesel from Russia. Much like Trump’s recent offer to sell China US weapons, this is, “aid and comfort” to our enemies. Yes, there are a handful of Republicans in congress that are publicly outraged, but like thousands of other opportunities they’ve missed to show us their spine during the Trump-era, their faux outrage will return to submission, once out of the public eye. In Texas we call this “bootlicking,” but the words spineless or submissive also work. Until we completely marginalize these brainwashed and spineless Republicans in office and their voters, our nation will continue to have the worst national security posture of my lifetime.
My specific grievance revolves around the administration’s and Republican-led congress’s acquiescence to using our tax-dollars to allegedly purchase Russian diesel fuel. In plain language, this is “offering aid and comfort to the enemy,” a treasonable offense when Putin along with Xi, are providing targeting information to Iran to use against US servicemembers, ships, bases, facilities etc. Add to this Trump’s offer to sell China some of our most sophisticated computer chips and US weapons, only seals my claim of treason. I really don’t know how else this could be interpreted. We already have at least 21 killed and roughly a thousand wounded troops from the Iran war, and heaven knows the true numbers as that the Pentagon and the administration, continue to play hide and seek with casualty figures.
As a now-retired soldier with years deployed behind me, and like many of my former brothers and sisters-in-arms, I have lost friends and teammates in combat zones and from the after effects. The very idea of a POTUS aiding our enemies, disgusts me beyond description. Our founders felt the same and wrote the requirements for treason into our constitution, the only law specifically defined within. It is deeply painful to watch a sitting US president rendering aid and comfort to the very our enemies who participate in the murder of our servicemembers. What the hell is wrong with Republican voters who continue to deify such a monster and blindly repeat his dishonesty and un-American ideology from rote memory. I call this ideology, The four horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse: Autocracy, Oligarchy, Christian Nationalism and Political Violence.
Now readers, let’s get down to the reality most Republicans deny.
Yes, Russia and China are our enemies
First and foremost, there is no doubt that both Russia and China are adversaries who daily attack our nation in some form or another. For example, it is common knowledge to all that do not live in a MAGA bubble, that Russia attacked our 2016 election to assist Trump’s candidacy while undermining his opposition. They haven’t stopped since. Putin’s bots, propaganda, censorship and a plethora of other influence tactics, are a constant threat to what we see, read, hear or watch. Tragically, today’s GOP and especially their voters, have been brainwashed and conned to believe any ridiculous lie or conspiracy theory uttered by their leadership. Russia and the Soviet Union before them, have been attacking the US and western allies with propaganda since the 1920s. Many of the divisive propaganda “seeds” they sowed decades ago, continue to bud and blossom to this very day. The MAGA GOP’s ideology represents most of that divisive content.
The only difference now is, that the GOP collaborates with Putin’s propagandists. Russia has been working again to sew chaos and distrust in this election too, aimed at keeping his Trump and friends allies in office.
Iran, N. Korea and dozens of the other nations within Putin and Xi’s orbit, often serve as proxies for spreading their influence against the US and the West in general. Now that we are incompetently led in a senseless war for oil, much like Venezuela, American troops are dying and being wounded by Putin and Xi’s most dangerous proxy, Iran, whom they support in a variety of ways. Both Russia and China have been exposed as providing targeting information to Iran that allows them to successfully track and target US troops. Tragically those troops have often been left defenseless to drone and missile attacks by a dangerously incompetent, Pete Hegseth. In the US we often live in a partial news blackout imposed by the administration as to what’s happening with the war in the Persian Gulf. For those with interest, I wrote an eleven-part series on the war as it progressed. The link to Part XI, is in the embedded link and below the cartoon. Both contain links to all ten preceding parts.
Now that we know that Trump’s best friends, Putin and Xi are participating in dealing death and wounds to US servicemembers, there can be no more doubt that they are “the enemy.” This begs the question, “why does Trump with the full support of the Republicans in congress, spend so much of his time bootlicking Putin and Xi and handing over our tax dollars to Putin for a commitment of diesel. I go into the “why” in the aforementioned eleven-part series but for the moment, let’s get to this issue of the alleged diesel deal.
Here’s where it really gets crazy
According to most credible reporting, the deal is for the US to purchase in excess of 300,000 metric tons of diesel fuel from Russia. Still all we have is reporting because the details remain like everything else in this administration, either non-existent, hidden or manipulated into propaganda. Although the number sounds staggering, experts claim it a relatively small amount that will most likely make little or no difference in consumer prices before the election or afterwards. Most consumers are now furious with fuel prices at record levels and diesel, is the primary fuel that farming, manufacturing and shipping runs on. In other words, how we get nearly everything we purchase or require for work, play and feeding our families.
Even Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina is claiming that this deal, may not even be legal based on a 2022 law that bans importing from Russia except for under specific conditions.
"Sen. Thom Tillis on Sunday denounced President Donald Trump’s energy deal with Russia, warning that the agreement could place American lives at risk — and that the president may be breaking the law. Speaking to NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” the North Carolina Republican warned that the president’s deal may violate a 2022 law passed by Congress that banned Russian oil imports unless specific conditions were met, including a full Russian withdrawal from Ukraine. - Tillis says Trump's Russian diesel deal may be illegal - Politico - By Cheyanne M. Daniels - 10/11/2026 11:43 AM CDT |Updated: 10/11/2026 12:19 PM CDT
Meanwhile, Trump has been pushing President Zelenskyy since early this Spring to stop bombing Russian oil infrastructure and he’s now claiming an “energy ceasefire,” even though President Zelenskyy only learned of it like everyone else did, on a Truth Social post from Trump. Shortly after the announcement, Putin attacked energy facilities in Ukraine, as he always does after agreeing to a ceasefire of some sort. There is no honor among thieves. Trump has become even more aggressive with Zelenskyy recently, blaming Ukraine for high gas prices, not Trump’s war on Iran. Of course this is utter nonsense. The alleged diesel deal comes just two days after Putin’s 74th birthday and famed Russian organized crime expert Mark Galeotti, is quoted as saying, the diesel deal is an "astonishing birthday present" to Putin.
What makes this so-called “deal” even more bizarre is that Russia and Russians are starving for their own fuel, mostly due to Ukraine’s success in targeting Russian energy facilities. Not to mention, Russia is still desperate for diesel to feed its war machine, now losing in Ukraine after 4 years of a cruel war that Putin started. Beginning with Ukrainian focus on imposing hard costs on Russia by targeting energy sectors in the Spring, Russia was and remains in their own fuel crisis.
"Russia's fuel shortages are becoming a budget problem. Ukraine's sustained strikes on Russian refineries are not only damaging infrastructure and squeezing Russia’s oil industry, they are forcing the Kremlin to spend more to keep fuel flowing at home while earning less from exports. That trade-off is becoming increasingly expensive. The effects are already visible across Russia. More than two-thirds of the country’s federal entities have reported government or privately imposed restrictions on gasoline and diesel sales, while retail fuel prices have risen 3% over the past week. Since late May, intensified Ukrainian strikes have cut gasoline production by roughly a quarter, pushing jet fuel prices at Russian airports up 17% since early June. The Kremlin has already extended its jet fuel export ban through the end of November and is considering a ban on diesel. Russia is also negotiating to import around 50,000 tonnes of gasoline from Kazakhstan." - Putin's Fuel Dilemma - RUSI, The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies | - Petras Katinas and Natia Seskuria - 17 July 2026
Russians, even in the capital wait in line, sometimes overnight in lines kilometers long just to receive their weekly ration of twenty liters of petrol. Although Putin remains safe in his autocracy, the Russian people are grumbling over casualties and shortages, especially fuel. Putin has long attacked Ukrainian energy prior to winter, in order to impose more suffering onto a resilient and courageous but exhausted Ukraine. We’ll see what Zelenskyy has in store for Putin’s winter this year.
Things are not going well in Russia’s semi-satellite states in Central Asia either, a region of substantial strategic value that is also suffering from Russian energy losses. China is now eating away at the Central Asian edges of the former Soviet Union, and has become the dominant economic and strategic voice in the region. Putin doesn’t love this but has backed himself into a corner that he no longer has the capacity to exit. Putin needs Xi and Trump just to survive, not conquer. Still, Russia and Russians have a long, dark historical capacity to absorb pain. As much as we’d like it to be so, I don’t see Putin toppling just yet, unless he dies, becomes incapacitated or someone enables his demise.
"Ukraine’s continued drone attacks on Russian oil refineries have rocked not only Russia’s fuel market, but also those of Central Asia. While those countries have their own oil production and refining capacity, for decades it has been both easier and cheaper for them to purchase processed fuel from Russia. Now that the old model is no longer working, the clock is ticking to solve the problem before a full-scale fuel shortage occurs. The fuel export restrictions imposed by Russia in April 2026 due to Ukraine’s strikes swiftly impacted Central Asian markets. Retail gasoline prices in dollar terms rose by 15–25 percent year on year, depending on the country. As in Russia, the fuel shortage has created additional risks for agriculture ahead of the fall harvest. Uninterrupted supplies of diesel fuel are particularly important during this period." - Russia Is Exporting Its Fuel Crisis to Central Asia - Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center - By Galiya Ibragimova - Published on Aug 6, 2026
Summing things up
Of course Putin is exhilarated by the announcement of the diesel purchase deal. It’s the best news he’s had all year. Russia isn’t only starving for fuel but it depends on energy sales more than any other single product for acquiring cash. Selling diesel to the US is not only a way to acquire US dollars, but Putin has made Trump into a liability for all Republicans in the midterms. Trump’s willingness to use our tax dollars to fund Putin’s war despite Russian assistance to Iran’s targeting of our military, is a staggeringly overt commitment to giving “aid and comfort” to our enemy.
Putin knows how to offer the world a perception that is favorable to him and the diesel sale is no different. Trump’s perennial willingness to come to Putin’s rescue when the chips are down, demonstrates multiple perspectives to the US citizenry and the world.
It demonstrates that Trump is subservient to a failing authoritarian.
It refines the global community’s view of the intended new world order, that sees Xi is at the top, followed by Trump and then Putin at the bottom of the barrel. I also believe that Xi and Putin both benefit from allowing Trump to believe that he’s in “their league.” Trump is so easily played and both Putin and Xi know how to play this game.
It clearly shows the world that so long as Trump and his sycophantic Republicans are in power, they can continue to undermine global democracy and US influence, at will. I’ve long said that I believe that China is either now the primary superpower in the world, or nearly so. The only way to avoid second-class citizenship among the power elites, is to remove this administration and every single sitting Republican in Congress.
Domestically, Trump is clearly showing that he believes that he no longer needs his Republican base or congressional Republicans. If he did, he would not jeopardize the upcoming midterms to please Putin. Republicans are deservedly taking a beating all-across America. Trump continues to take actions that enrich him regardless of what it does to the party. Congressional Republicans are learning a hard lesson about karma. and I’m here for it.
I could care less because in my mind, there are no Republicans in Congress deserving of returning. Not one, after blindly supporting all manner of illegal, unconstitutional and cruel actions against the American people, but that’s just me.
My conclusion is that Trump is guilty of treason and the underlying cause, is aid and comfort to the enemy. How many more American servicemembers will die while he gives Putin birthday presents? We have a chance on November 3rd to answer that question. “let’s roll.”
Back late in the week,
Paul