Gage Skidmore, via Flickr
by Shauna Theel, via Media Matters
Donald Trump recently declared on CNBC that “Saudi Arabia is doing Obama a big fat favor” by increasing oil production in order to bring gasoline prices down, and that if Obama is re-elected the “favor will be repaid many times over.” Fox Nation took this conspiracy even further, calling it a “SECRET SAUDI OIL DEAL TO WIN REELECTION”; Real Clear Politics, Breitbart.com, and Newsmax also promoted Trump’s comments.
This has put conservatives in the bizarre position of claiming that Obama is nefariously lowering gasoline prices in order to help the economy and win re-election, after previously claiming that Obama was trying to raise gas prices.
And the claim that there is a “SECRET” “DEAL” is ridiculous: it is public knowledge that the U.S. has pressured Saudi Arabia to boost its oil output. The administration’s apparent success in doing so undercuts Trump’s previous attack that the Saudis were not ramping up production because Obama was a poor “messenger” or was too busy on “his basketball court” or something.
The Saudis have no incentive to do “Obama a big fat favor” unless it is in their own self-interest. As the Washington Post reported, energy economist Phillip Vergeler believes that Saudi Arabia is trying to “stay in the good graces of United States and Europe” by providing “economic stimulus,” but they are also acting in order to slow down shale production in North America and put pressure on Iran.
Vergeler explained that Saudi Arabia is concerned about Iran’s nuclear program and “The Saudis know that lower [oil] prices are a much better way to put pressure on Iran than sanctions.” And the Wall Street Journal reported that a senior executive at a major oil company believes that Saudi Arabia’s “desire to harm Iran … may trump any budgetary concerns of its own” because the Saudis are able to “run deficits for years without any impairment to their triple A position.” Furthermore, consultant Robert McNally told the Washington Post that “Iranians accuse Saudi Arabia of exploiting sanctions to steal Iran’s market share.”
Sadly, the ramblings of Donald Trump, a man best known for shouting “You’re fired!” at C-list celebrities and generating birtherpalooza, are being put forward by the media as serious political commentary and covered by the broadcast news networks more than climate change.
Shauna Theel is a contributing writer for Media Matters. This piece was originally published at Media Matters and was reprinted with permission.
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LOOK! Over there, it a bird, its a plane, … oh, You missed it.
Corporate greed is all financed by the Corporate ability to pollute the commons for personal profit. I cannot do that, nor can you, unless you have some skin in the game. Corporations are people now, I call them Corpro/People, and having accepted that ruling they have a new avenue to make their $$$ VOTE! However they lobby to ignore the fiduciary people law of not polluting your neighbors property for profits, (and spend huge additional sums to fog the horizon). Even the President could not escape ramifications of getting caught throwing a paper cup out the car window yet we all expel toxins out the tailpipe with abandon, because the “right” people get rich. The ability to pollute the commons for personal wealth is the fundamental foundation of Western capitalism and clearly a failed paradigm and transition to another is clearly traumatic. But then, so is Ecocide. Stop profits from polluting!
Connect the dots. Perhaps if our tail pipes spit out 19 lbs/gal. of paper cups rather than ecocide toxins we could get action.
What could the Obama administration offer to Saudi Arabia that would make this conspiracy work? Our foreign policy has been kissing the Saudi royal family’s behinds since as far back as the FDR administration.
Increase production and Obama will continue to not fight effectively to stop profits from polluting the commons?
All those drone strikes have scared them.
And besides, if there were a secret deal to ensure President Obama’s reelection, wouldn’t they wait until September or October to execute it?
Just when you thought Trump was simply a buffoon, living symbol of how money is magnetically drawn to dross and the inventor of the comb forward of upper back hair. Saudi Arabia is pumping oil to drive down prices to hit Iran and Russia, two major obstacles to the Project for a New American Century’s drive for an eternal, global Empire of ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’. The Saudis have been loyal US stooges and despots for over seventy years. I doubt that they see any difference between the US political parties-they’re not that silly.