Barbara Boyd opens with President Trump’s Sunday announcement of an energy ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and what led up to it: his remarks to the press that it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president, and Friday’s agreement for Russia to supply diesel to the United States and the world, with a Treasury license authorizing Russian diesel through April 2027. She argues that Trump and Putin have exposed the game being played by the City of London: Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russia’s refineries, which the Washington Post examined, keep fuel prices high ahead of the November 3 midterms, while the Financial Times reports the administration threatened to cut off weapons and intelligence if the attacks continued, and members of Congress move against the deal. After President Zelensky’s interview on ABC’s This Week blaming high prices on the war in the Middle East, the episode turns to the energy wars: Russia’s ban on fuel exports, U.S. diesel above $6 a gallon, no major new U.S. refinery since 1977, and Europe’s emergency diesel stocks, held mainly by Germany and France, until Trump’s export threat brought a G7 release of 100 million barrels of oil and diesel. It closes with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Operation Economic Outcast against Iran’s regime, the petrodollar system and London’s commodity markets since the 1971 collapse of Bretton Woods, President Putin’s case for long-term contracts between producing and consuming nations, the Conservative Treehouse’s argument that the world’s biggest economy is aligning against the financial schemes of London while retaining the dollar, and Secretary Bessent’s chart on prices under Biden and Trump.

00:00 Monday Brief Intro
03:05 The Trump/Putin Trap
05:53 The Energy Wars and the City of London
07:24 Is A New Economic Order at Hand?

Credits
Photos
- Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, Anchorage, Alaska, August 15, 2025: U.S. Department of Defense / Benjamin D. Applebaum, public domain
Video
- President Trump speaking to the press, October 10, 2026: The White House, public domain
- President Zelensky on This Week, October 11, 2026: ABC News
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Fox & Friends Weekend, October 11, 2026: U.S. Department of the Treasury / Fox News
- President Zelensky with a U.S. congressional delegation, Kyiv, October 9, 2026 (x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2108607485342790142)
- President Nixon’s address to the nation, August 15, 1971: public domain
- U.S. Navy footage (U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, DVIDS), public domain
- Stock footage: Storyblocks
Articles, posts and documents quoted: on Truth Social: @realDonaldTrump (October 9 and 11, 2026); on X: @ZelenskyyUa, @SecScottBessent; U.S. Treasury, OFAC General License No. 135 (October 9, 2026); The Washington Post (October 11, 2026); Financial Times (October 11, 2026); Ukrainska Pravda (October 11, 2026); International Energy Agency (September 17, 2026); U.S. Energy Information Administration, “When was the last refinery built in the United States?”; Reuters (October 1, 2026); BBC News (October 2, 2026); TASS (October 21, 2021); The Conservative Treehouse (October 10, 2026)
Data: U.S. Energy Information Administration, weekly U.S. retail diesel prices

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