Exposed: The Trump, Putin and Saudi connection to high gas prices (Commentary) – By Thom Hartmann (Raw Story) / March 12, 2022
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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.
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