THAT'S A DISGRACE
Good morning,. The customer just called the ally a disgrace for hitting the product.
Late Thursday, President Trump told Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty that if Zelenskyy is “again shooting at refineries, all he’s doing is making the world oil price higher.” Then the punch: “I think that’s a disgrace. There’s plenty of other targets; they don’t have to hit.” He added that Zelenskyy is “not a good guy for us to deal with” and that he finds Zelenskyy “more difficult to deal with than Putin.” NBC News and the Guardian ran it this morning. The White House even posted the Finnerty interview gallery.
THAT’S A DISGRACE is the name for the costume. License Putin’s diesel for the midterm pump. Invent an energy ceasefire Moscow says it never signed. Pause the ally for three days. Watch Russia keep hitting the grid. Then scold Kyiv for resuming strikes on the aggressor’s war economy because diesel prices are a November problem.
Watch: Newsmax: Trump with Rob Finnerty (primary). Short clip: NBC News video.
The Newsmax standard
The fuller quote, per the Guardian, is even clearer about whose economics matter: “There are a lot of targets you can hit, but when you shoot at diesel refineries where you make, you know, diesel oil, and we need that, and the world needs that, then he’s not doing a good service for the world.”
Read that again. We need that. The customer is grading the ally’s target list against the shipment schedule.
This is not the first chapter. We covered Trump inventing the energy ceasefire Zelenskyy heard about from Axios in NEWS FOR ME. We covered the diesel license itself in BREAKING NEWS: SANCTIONS BY THE TON and the Senate scramble in REVERSE COURSE. Earlier still: Don’t Hit Diesel and Temporary Exception: Oil. This piece is the scolding. Those pieces are the deal and the fiction.
Want the money map for who funds the people who vote on foreign policy and energy? Start with the Follow the Money state map.
Official 2025 presidential portrait of Donald J. Trump. On Newsmax with Rob Finnerty late Thursday he called Ukraine’s resumed refinery strikes a “disgrace” and said Zelenskyy is “more difficult to deal with than Putin.” Credit: Daniel Torok / White House, public domain
The pause Russia ignored
Kyiv paused roughly three days at Trump’s request, then resumed. Zelenskyy told the Financial Times (via Reuters): “The block (on attacking refineries) is out. We’re done.” He said he would only reopen a halt if given more Patriots as a “minimum.” Ukraine hit a Rosneft refinery in the Ryazan region Thursday.
Moscow’s line, per BBC and Reuters: it never agreed to the energy ceasefire Trump announced. Russian strikes on Ukraine’s power grid never stopped. Overnight into Friday: deadly drone strike in Kharkiv; roughly 270,000 households without power in Volyn, governors told the BBC.
Ursula von der Leyen, standing with Zelenskyy in Brussels: “Of course we supported President Trump’s energy ceasefire but we’ve seen that Russia did not respect it, not a single minute.”
Trump’s own former Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, speaking around the Warsaw Security Forum, defended Kyiv’s refinery strikes as legitimate pressure and said fuel infrastructure should not be a sanctuary: a red-on-red contrast with “plenty of other targets” (Kyiv Post).
Brussels and the Starlink squeeze
Friday in Brussels, Zelenskyy called EU leaders “real leaders” while Trump was still on the Newsmax tape. European Council President António Costa said there is “no time to withdraw support” and “no time to relieve Russian sanctions”: a jab at the U.S. diesel deal for 300,000 tonnes, BBC reported. Von der Leyen promised more sanctions pressure and said the EU will not lift sanctions unless Russia stops the war.
Hold Europe to the same ledger. Weeks ago the EU lifted sanctions on two Russian oligarchs at the request of France and Luxembourg, the Guardian noted. Purity is easier in a summit photo than in a sanctions annex.
Meanwhile Starshield/Starlink limits hit without warning. Musk said decisions sit with the U.S. military and ultimately Trump. A senior U.S. official told NBC “no such request was ever made by the president.” Trump denied restricting intel. Zelenskyy in Brussels Friday: speed not fully restored, but returning. During his London visit he said he felt “personally betrayed” by the Starlink restriction; UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said Hegseth assured him service was restored (Guardian).
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Friday agreed with Trump’s framing: Zelenskyy doesn’t want a peaceful resolution, on Moscow’s terms, as always (NBC).
Volodymyr Zelenskyy official portrait. In Brussels Friday he thanked EU “real leaders” after ending the energy pause because Russia never stopped hitting Ukraine’s grid. Credit: President.gov.ua, CC BY 4.0
The red costume: America First, customer edition
Republicans, you sold sovereignty and ending forever wars. Then you licensed Putin’s diesel for midterm pump politics, announced a ceasefire Moscow says it never signed, and called the invaded country a “disgrace” for hitting the aggressor’s refining capacity because “we need that.”
“Plenty of other targets” is not strategy. It is November speak with a map of acceptable explosions that conveniently leave the diesel export stream alone. Finding Zelenskyy harder than Putin while you are the buyer waiting on the shipment is not hard-nosed dealmaking. It is the customer reviewing the menu.
If energy targets are sacred for oil-price reasons, say so as a rule with verification both ways. If they are sacred only when your midterms need diesel, stop calling it statecraft.
The blue costume: forever-war purity, selective memory
Democrats and Europe, before you frame the Newsmax clip: you spent years on “as long as it takes” without a published end-state, and Europe paid Russia for energy for a long stretch of this war. Costa’s line about not relieving sanctions cuts both ways when Brussels still carves oligarch exceptions weeks before a solidarity summit.
Zelenskyy called the diesel deal a gift to Putin and an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged. Fair. Do not pretend leverage purity was invented Thursday. Forever-war without a theory of victory is also a costume. Support that means Patriots, air defense, and honest energy rules is strategy. Support that is only outrage at Trump’s diesel deal while Europe’s own energy and sanctions record stays soft-focus is theater.
Both costumes
Red licenses the fuel, invents the ceasefire, then scolds the ally for raising the price of the product. Blue discovers energy morality when the letterhead is Trump’s, after years of Russian energy money and no hard victory theory. One side brands midterm diesel as peace. The other brands forever aid as virtue. Neither wants the boring standard.
Here is the rule to laminate. If energy targets are off-limits, they are off-limits for both sides with verification. If diesel purchases fund the war, say that about every buyer, including Europeans historically and Americans under this license. You do not get to call refinery strikes a disgrace while you are the customer waiting for the shipment.
So ask both tribes one question this week: show me the principle that survives a change of invoice. If the answer starts with “plenty of other targets” or “as long as it takes” with no map, check who is buying and who is burning first.
Receipts
- NBC News (Yuliya Talmazan), updated Oct. 16, 2026 ~8:17 AM EDT. Newsmax “disgrace” / “more difficult than Putin”; Kyiv ends energy ceasefire; Starlink/Starshield; Brussels “real leaders”; Peskov; diesel deal context.
- BBC (Tiffany Wertheimer). Von der Leyen “not a single minute”; Costa on support/sanctions vs 300,000-tonne diesel deal; 3-day pause; Kharkiv / Volyn ~270k; Zelenskyy on diesel deal as gift to Putin.
- Guardian (Jennifer Rankin), Oct. 16, 2026. Fuller Newsmax diesel-refinery quote (“we need that”); Starlink “personally betrayed”; Streeting/Hegseth; EU lifted sanctions on two oligarchs (France/Luxembourg).
- Newsmax: Trump / Rob Finnerty interview. Primary Watch link.
- NBC News video short.
- White House gallery: Finnerty interview.
- Reuters via Investing.com (Flynn/Hunder), Oct. 15, 2026. FT: “We’re done”; Patriots minimum; Ryazan refinery; Musk Starshield post.
- Kyiv Post: Kellogg on refinery strikes / Warsaw Security Forum. Ex-envoy: Ukraine should decide targets; fuel infrastructure not a sanctuary.
- Mediaite (Kathryn Wilkens), Oct. 15, 2026. Additional Newsmax transcript color.
- Earlier Hypocrisy Democracy: NEWS FOR ME, BREAKING NEWS: SANCTIONS BY THE TON, REVERSE COURSE, Don’t Hit Diesel, Temporary Exception: Oil, Follow the Money state map
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Originally published on Substack.
