Trump tells Ukraine to find a new leader as GOP hawks cry betrayal over Putin diesel deal
- Trump suggested Ukraine find a new leader after Zelensky kept striking Russian oil refineries despite repeated U.S. warnings.
- The rebuke came a day after Trump’s deal with Putin to release an initial 300,000 tons of Russian diesel onto American and global markets.
- Former Vice President Mike Pence called the deal a betrayal of the legacy of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.
- Fox News hosts Brian Kilmeade and Rachel Campos-Duffy clashed on air, with Kilmeade warning that working with Russia would be Trump’s biggest mistake.
- Even if fully delivered, the 4.8 million tons of diesel would cover less than nine days of U.S. consumption.
President Donald Trump reignited a bitter split within the American right on October 10, lashing out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for ignoring repeated warnings to stop bombing Russian oil refineries and suggesting the war-torn nation needs new leadership.
The extraordinary rebuke came just one day after Trump announced a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to release an initial 300,000 tons of diesel onto American and global markets — a move that former Vice President Mike Pence called a betrayal of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s legacy. The clashes that followed, including a heated on-air exchange on Fox News, exposed foreign policy as the right’s deepest and most emotional fault line.
Kilmeade and Campos-Duffy clash over diesel deal on Fox News
The debate spilled onto national television Sunday morning when Fox News host Brian Kilmeade squared off with Rachel Campos-Duffy on “Fox & Friends Weekend.” Campos-Duffy defended the administration’s position, arguing that Zelensky was hurting Trump by continuing to blow up Russian refineries after being asked to stop, especially ahead of the midterms.
Kilmeade fired back, suggesting the deal might violate the sanctions bill named after Lindsey Graham and warning that it would send money flowing into Russia. “There’s one person who is responsible: Vladimir Putin. That is it,” Kilmeade said, adding that working with Russia would be the biggest mistake of Trump’s administration.
The exchange laid bare the fundamental divide: for hawks like Kilmeade, any deal with Putin is off the table, even one aimed at cheaper fuel; for Trump and his allies, the soaring cost of diesel is a political emergency that demands immediate action, no matter the diplomatic cost.
Pence calls deal a betrayal of Lindsey Graham’s memory
On X, Pence blasted the president’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian fuel, arguing it made no sense while Russia keeps striking civilian targets in Ukraine. Graham, who died this summer, was one of the most vocal pro-Ukraine hawks in Washington and the driving force behind the Russia sanctions law Trump signed in his honor just last month.
The irony is hard to miss. Graham, in Trump’s own words in his eulogy for the senator, “never saw a war that he didn’t like.” Pence’s invocation of the late senator’s legacy as a guide for American foreign policy is tough to take seriously, especially given that Graham routinely lobbied Trump on Zelensky’s behalf.
Ukraine war splits right wing again
The fight over Ukraine is the latest chapter in a decades-old battle between conservative hawks and restrainers, one that once pitted Pat Buchanan against the GOP establishment and Ron Paul against Rudy Giuliani. During the 2023 GOP primary debates, the schism was on full display as Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley traded blows over Ukraine. Haley jabbed that Ramaswamy had no foreign policy experience, and months later he branded her “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels.” On the right, nothing draws blood quite like war.
Kilmeade’s willingness to break with the president over the diesel deal shows that, for the hawks, Zelensky is a sacred figure who must be defended at all costs. Trump’s decision to prioritize American fuel prices over the war effort has shattered that assumption, leaving the right to grapple with a question it has long avoided: whose interests should come first?
What Trump got: less than nine days of diesel, but a political headline
The deal Trump announced is far smaller than the president’s all-caps promises suggested. By ZeroHedge’s math, the initial 300,000 tons covers about half a day of U.S. demand. Even if the full 4.8 million tons materialize, that’s less than nine days of American consumption — and the fuel is destined for the global market, not just the United States. Kpler analyst Michelle Brouhard questioned where the diesel would come from, with Russian refineries reportedly running at about 60% capacity due to Ukrainian strikes and Moscow already enforcing a diesel export ban through Oct. 31.
Trump’s real goal appears to be political: with the midterms less than a month away and diesel prices still near record highs, the president needed a headline.
Kyiv didn’t wait long to respond. “We will burn [Russian] refineries,” a senior Ukrainian official told the Financial Times. Washington’s hawks may hail that defiance as heroic. American farmers and truckers paying near-record prices at the pump, after Kyiv brushed off half a dozen U.S. requests to spare those refineries, may see it differently.
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