What did Donald Trump do today?

He got mad when people noticed he was helping Russia to help Iran.

Oil prices have shot up since Trump's attack on Iran. With the White House still refusing to explain the rationale for the attacks or under what condition they'd ever stop, that may not be a brief state of affairs. The US Central Command is internally expecting at least half a year of open conflict, at a cost of nearly a billion dollars a day.

That is bad news for Americans, but very good news for Russia, which desperately needs higher oil prices to stave off economic collapse. Yesterday, Trump said he would make it easier for India to buy Russian oil. Today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted that more Russian oil would be taken off the sanctions list soon.

Russia is fighting a war against U.S. ally Ukraine, although Trump has repeatedly tried to resolve that war in the Putin regime's favor. Russia is also a geopolitical ally of Iran. It is helping Iran identify and target American military installations, according to reporting today sourced to the US intelligence community. Asked by Steve Doocy of Fox News about Russia actively aiding Iran in fighting back, Trump grew angry and snapped at the reporter, calling it a "stupid question," but didn't answer it. 

In other words, Trump has blundered into a situation where he's financially incentivizing Russia to help counterattacks against the United States.

This is not the first time Trump has absolutely refused to acknowledge Russia acting to help kill American forces. In March of 2020, Russia was caught paying Taliban forces bounties for killing Americans in an attempt to keep the United States bogged down in Afghanistan. The discovery of the plot was only made public in June. In the interim, Trump met with Putin several times and continued to support Russian interests. When asked about it, Trump pretended he hadn't been told but took no action against the Putin regime.

Trump is deeply financially and politically beholden to the Putin regime.

Why does this matter?

• Past a certain point it doesn't matter if a president is helping the enemy out of stupidity or because he wants to. 

• A competent president would have understood at least some of the most obvious consequences of this action and taken some steps to avoid them before launching the attack. 

• Ignoring threats to Americans in war zones doesn't make them go away.