Mary Trump Says Donald Trump's Russian Diesel Deal Only Helps Vladimir Putin

Mary Trump says her uncle's deal to buy Russian diesel will do little to bring down fuel prices and leaves Russian President Vladimir Putin as the only real winner. Energy policy experts say the deal is unlikely to move prices much.

President Donald Trump announced the agreement Friday after striking a deal with Putin. On Sunday, seven senators from both parties, four of them Republicans, urged him to reverse it, saying it conflicts with a 2022 law that bans Russian energy imports.

"It hardly seems like that was worth betraying our ally for because really the only beneficiary of this benighted deal is Vladimir Putin," Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist and the president's niece, said on Monday's episode of The Mary Trump Podcast.

What Donald Trump's Russian Diesel Deal Includes

Trump said Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by 500,000 tons in November and 4 million more tons after that, the Associated Press reported.

The president is pitching the deal as relief at the pump three weeks before the midterms. The national average for diesel was $6.28 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA, up from $3.68 a year earlier. It hit a record $6.53 on September 22, during the war with Iran, which disrupted Middle East refining capacity near the Strait of Hormuz.

On the show, Mary Trump read from an assessment by Michael Lynch, a distinguished fellow at the Energy Policy Research Foundation and one of the experts the AP quoted as doubting the deal would do much for prices. "It's kind of shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic," Lynch told the AP.

Mary Trump went on to blame rising fuel prices on what she called Trump's "illegal war of choice against Iran." Regular gasoline is averaging $4.35 a gallon nationally, and PolitiKool's polling average shows just 29.7 percent of Americans approving of Trump's handling of the economy.

Senators Cite the 2022 Russian Energy Import Ban

Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Curtis of Utah signed the statement, Time reported, along with Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. They said Congress was not consulted.

"Congress explicitly banned Russian energy imports in 2022 to prevent American dollars from financing Putin's brutal war against Ukraine," the senators wrote.

The law at issue is the Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act, enacted in 2022. Mary Trump described it as banning Russian energy imports until Russia ends its aggression against Ukraine.

Trump has defended the deal. "I made the right choice for the American People—always America first," he said.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the 'New President' Fight

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized the arrangement Friday, the Kyiv Post reported. "It is a weak decision. Unfortunately, a weak decision by strong partners," he said. He added that Ukraine's negotiating team, which was in Florida for peace talks at the time, was "simply being used as a smokescreen."

Trump responded over the weekend by blaming Zelenskyy for Ukraine's attacks on Russian refineries and saying "it's time for Ukraine to get a new President." That set off a fresh exchange over who chooses Ukraine's leader.

Mary Trump said the only president who should step down is her uncle. Of Trump, she said: "he doesn't care how many Ukrainians die he doesn't care if this war ends or not he only cares that he not be blamed for the problems he is actively causing."

What Happens Next

The senators urged Trump to reverse the deal. Russia's first shipments are due to start immediately, with more in November, the month of the midterm elections.

Whether Russian diesel will lower prices before Election Day is unclear. PolitiKool's polling average puts Trump's approval at 37.7 percent.