Energy Secretary Claims Trump's Diesel Deal With Putin Has Been Misunderstood

Fox News Donald Trump’s energy secretary has denied that the president’s sweetheart deal with Vladimir Putin is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine.

Chris Wright told Fox News that the president’s shocking arrangement with Russia, which permits Moscow to export millions of tons of diesel, has been “misunderstood”.

It comes as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky decried the deal as “a historic mistake and a big tragedy,” warning that “if the United States will take the side of Russia, of course we will not prevail.” Appearing on the network’s Sunday Night in America With Trey Gowdy , Wright made the claim as he scrambled to reassure viewers about soaring gasoline and diesel costs.

Pushed on how Ukrainians might process the agreement, he said: “Our hearts are with them.

I meet with Ukrainian officials all the time, and we are doing everything we can with technology to help protect their infrastructure, parts and repairs for it and LNG [Liquefied Natural Gas] supplies from the United States into Ukraine.” “These actions by President Trump are just being misunderstood,” Wright added.

And he was quick to defend the administration’s attitude toward Russia, which has been widely criticized for having softened as a result of the Oct.

9 agreement.

Wright said: “We are not helping the Russians.

They don’t export any diesel today, they get $0 for doing that.

We are saying if they change behavior and if they can and do export diesel we will allow it to flow to the global markets.” He insisted that “diesel prices, gasoline prices a few months from now will be meaningfully lower than they are today.” And he claimed that the timing of the deal was a coincidence, saying: “President Trump has taken actions because of the threat from Iran.

He is not focused on the election, obviously.

But you’ll start to see energy prices continue to go down.” He then pivoted to the administration’s foreign policy record, declaring: “But this president is not going to hand his successor a nuclear-armed Iran.

I couldn’t be more proud of that action.” The energy chief’s prime-time appearance was part of a broader damage-control campaign.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, the president called his decision “a very simple one,” claiming: “I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table”.