USA | Trump's threat: Hands up, bring on diesel!

US President Donald Trump fears his party will lose in the coming midterm elections. Photo: AFP/KENT NISHIMURA US President Donald Trump's star is sinking. He is losing popularity among the population to a gigantic extent. Among the non-party voters who decide the election, Trump only has 18 percent approval and an incredible 81 percent disapproval. Overall, Trump only has 37.4 percent approval and 60.6 percent disapproval. The head of analysis at the news portal Vote-Hub, Zachary Donnini, explained on X: "Trump currently has the lowest net approval rating of any president (...) since opinion polls began in 1945."

The midterm elections on November 3rd, in which the entire House of Representatives and around a third of the Senate will be re-elected, fill many Republicans with fear. The third parties are also rattling Trump, which is why the old showmaster called an unscheduled party conference in Dallas at the beginning of September and promised all adult Americans $5,000. It didn't help - only 13 percent of voters believe that Trump would actually pay out the money. At some point, a hungry conservative voter learns that he cannot eat communist hunting and transphobic legislation or use it to fuel his truck.

So what should we do, as even Lenin once asked? Trump came up with the idea of ​​​​depressing the price of diesel in the USA by stopping its export of diesel. Finally, farmers, shrimp fishermen and other MAGA hunters and gatherers in Republican strongholds that are currently reeling are complaining particularly loudly about the prices at gas stations for their diesel-powered machines and boats.

For more than a week, the world has been wondering whether Trump will turn off the tap. The “Spiegel” now sheds new light on the plans. EU and German government circles say that US Energy Minister Chris Wright is said to have threatened European states: If they do not throw 120 million barrels of diesel from their emergency reserves onto the US market within 180 days, diesel exports to Europe would be stopped.

Although the EU only gets around 10 percent of its diesel from the USA and Germany only five percent, an export ban could drive up prices by up to 25 percent. However, that would be even more catastrophic for the USA, as on the one hand the oil billionaires close to Trump would feel glaring losses. On the other hand, US refineries would then probably have to reduce their production because there is only limited storage capacity for diesel, which in turn would cause the price of gasoline to skyrocket.

All because Trump wanted to boost his poll numbers with a short military quickie in Iran. However, this triggered an unparalleled destructive chain reaction, like an elephant, no, an atomic bomb in a china shop. In a few years, this era will at least produce good shows on Netflix or HBO, and people will wonder how the hell a person like Trump ever came to power.

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