Daily Caller
Trump’s Ultimatum To Europe On Russian Oil
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
In a wide-ranging speech delivered at the U.N.’s “Climate Week” on Wednesday, President Donald Trump told the assembly that European nations “immediately cease all energy purchases from Russia” before the U.S. would agree to implement further tariffs on the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But Europe’s countries weren’t alone in being called out: Trump began with condemnation of China and India for continuing to be the main buyers of Russian crude.
Here is the relevant passage from the President’s speech:
“China and India are the primary funders of the ongoing war by continuing to purchase Russian oil. But inexcusably, even NATO countries have not cut off much Russian energy and Russian energy products. Which, as you know, I found out about two weeks ago, and I wasn’t happy. Think of it: They’re funding the war against themselves. Who the hell ever heard of that one?”
“In the event that Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the United States is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs which would stop the bloodshed, I believe very quickly. But, for those tariffs to be effective, European nations – all of you are gathered here right now – would have to join us in adopting the exact same measures.”
“You’re much closer to this thing – we have an ocean in between, you’re right there. Europe has to step it up: They can’t be doing what they’re doing. They’re buying oil from Russia while they’re fighting Russia. It was very embarrassing to them when I found out about it, I can tell you that.”
“They have to immediately cease all energy purchases from Russia; otherwise, we’re all wasting a lot of time. So, I’m ready to discuss this, we are going to discuss this today with the European nations all gathered here. I’m sure they’re thrilled to speak about it, but that’s the way it is. I like to speak my mind and speak the truth.”
This is far from the first time in which President Trump has warned Europe’s leaders of the self-destructive nature of their dependence on Russian oil and natural gas. Indeed, during his first G20 conference in July, 2017, Trump warned European heads of state at the time that their dependency could embolden Putin’s expansionist ambitions specifically related to Ukraine.
During a breakfast meeting, the President singled out Germany over its pending approval of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which promised to expand Russia’s energy leverage related to that country and much of the rest of northwestern Europe. His remarks were met with ridicule in a speech delivered during the same conference, with the German delegates openly laughing at him.
Of course, five years later, with a much weaker U.S. president safely in place, Putin ordered his army to invade Ukraine in late February 2022, and both the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines were blown up shortly thereafter by still unidentified perpetrators. The ensuing conflict has led to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian deaths and the displacement of millions of Ukrainian citizens, ranking it as one of the largest human calamities since World War II.
Notably, no one in the U.N. assembly audience was laughing at President Trump as he spoke on Wednesday. The disaster he warned Europe’s leaders of eight years ago has come to full fruition, with even more horrific results than even Trump had envisioned, a reality no one in that assembly hall can any longer deny.
Whether European leaders are now finally prepared to end their unhealthy energy dependence on the country they claim to be their mortal enemy is anyone’s guess, but one thing is certain: None among them can ever claim they have not been warned, once again and very publicly, by this President of the United States.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
Business
Some Of The Wackiest Things Featured In Rand Paul’s New Report Alleging $1,639,135,969,608 In Gov’t Waste
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul released the latest edition of his annual “Festivus” report Tuesday detailing over $1 trillion in alleged wasteful spending in the U.S. government throughout 2025.
The newly released report found an estimated $1,639,135,969,608 total in government waste over the past year. Paul, a prominent fiscal hawk who serves as the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement that “no matter how much taxpayer money Washington burns through, politicians can’t help but demand more.”
“Fiscal responsibility may not be the most crowded road, but it’s one I’ve walked year after year — and this holiday season will be no different,” Paul continued. “So, before we get to the Feats of Strength, it’s time for my Airing of (Spending) Grievances.”
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The 2025 “Festivus” report highlighted a spate of instances of wasteful spending from the federal government, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spent $1.5 million on an “innovative multilevel strategy” to reduce drug use in “Latinx” communities through celebrity influencer campaigns, and also dished out $1.9 million on a “hybrid mobile phone family intervention” aiming to reduce childhood obesity among Latino families living in Los Angeles County.
The report also mentions that HHS spent more than $40 million on influencers to promote getting vaccinated against COVID-19 for racial and ethnic minority groups.
The State Department doled out $244,252 to Stand for Peace in Islamabad to produce a television cartoon series that teaches children in Pakistan how to combat climate change and also spent $1.5 million to promote American films, television shows and video games abroad, according to the report.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spent more than $1,079,360 teaching teenage ferrets to binge drink alcohol this year, according to Paul’s report.
The report found that the National Science Foundation (NSF) shelled out $497,200 on a “Video Game Challenge” for kids. The NSF and other federal agencies also paid $14,643,280 to make monkeys play a video game in the style of the “Price Is Right,” the report states.
Paul’s 2024 “Festivus” report similarly featured several instances of wasteful federal government spending, such as a Las Vegas pickleball complex and a cabaret show on ice.
The Trump administration has been attempting to uproot wasteful government spending and reduce the federal workforce this year. The administration’s cuts have shrunk the federal workforce to the smallest level in more than a decade, according to recent economic data.
Festivus is a humorous holiday observed annually on Dec. 23, dating back to a popular 1997 episode of the sitcom “Seinfeld.” Observance of the holiday notably includes an “airing of grievances,” per the “Seinfeld” episode of its origin.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
I’ve written frequently here in recent years about the financial fiasco that has hit Ford Motor Company and other big U.S. carmakers who made the fateful decision to go in whole hog in 2021 to feed at the federal subsidy trough wrought on the U.S. economy by the Joe Biden autopen presidency. It was crony capitalism writ large, federal rent seeking on the grandest scale in U.S. history, and only now are the chickens coming home to roost.
Ford announced on Monday that it will be forced to take $19.5 billion in special charges as its management team embarks on a corporate reorganization in a desperate attempt to unwind the financial carnage caused by its failed strategies and investments in the electric vehicles space since 2022.
Cancelled is the Ford F-150 Lightning, the full-size electric pickup that few could afford and fewer wanted to buy, along with planned introductions of a second pricey pickup and fully electric vans and commercial vehicles. Ford will apparently keep making its costly Mustang Mach-E EV while adjusting the car’s features and price to try to make it more competitive. There will be a shift to making more hybrid models and introducing new lines of cheaper EVs and what the company calls “extended range electric vehicles,” or EREVs, which attach a gas-fueled generator to recharge the EV batteries while the car is being driven.
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“The $50k, $60k, $70k EVs just weren’t selling; We’re following customers to where the market is,” Farley said. “We’re going to build up our whole lineup of hybrids. It’s gonna be better for the company’s profitability, shareholders and a lot of new American jobs. These really expensive $70k electric trucks, as much as I love the product, they didn’t make sense. But an EREV that goes 700 miles on a tank of gas, for 90% of the time is all-electric, that EREV is a better solution for a Lightning than the current all-electric Lightning.”
It all makes sense to Mr. Farley, but one wonders how much longer the company’s investors will tolerate his presence atop the corporate management pyramid if the company’s financial fortunes don’t turn around fast.
To Ford’s and Farley’s credit, the company has, unlike some of its competitors (GM, for example), been quite transparent in publicly revealing the massive losses it has accumulated in its EV projects since 2022. The company has reported its EV enterprise as a separate business unit called Model-E on its financial filings, enabling everyone to witness its somewhat amazing escalating EV-related losses since 2022:
• 2022 – Net loss of $2.2 billion
• 2023 – Net loss of $4.7 billion
• 2024 – Net loss of $5.1 billion
Add in the company’s $3.6 billion in losses recorded across the first three quarters of 2025, and you arrive at a total of $15.6 billion net losses on EV-related projects and processes in less than four calendar years. Add to that the financial carnage detailed in Monday’s announcement and the damage from the company’s financial electric boogaloo escalates to well above $30 billion with Q4 2025’s damage still to be added to the total.
Ford and Farley have benefited from the fact that the company’s lineup of gas-and-diesel powered cars have remained strongly profitable, resulting in overall corporate profits each year despite the huge EV-related losses. It is also fair to point out that all car companies were under heavy pressure from the Biden government to either produce battery electric vehicles or be penalized by onerous federal regulations.
Now, with the Trump administration rescinding Biden’s harsh mandates and canceling the absurdly unattainable fleet mileage requirements, Ford and other companies will be free to make cars Americans actually want to buy. Better late than never, as they say, but the financial fallout from it all is likely just beginning to be made public.
- David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
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