The news briefly pushed the price of oil to $110 a barrel over heightened fears of widening clashes in the Middle East.
Page A2From§Eachthe late evening edition — 13 September 2026
Trump orders Ukraine to stop hitting refineries he blames for a price his Iran war set.
As it ran on the front
Walk me through it, would you? Not what the number said today — how you get to the number in the first place, step by step, the way you'd walk me through it if I were standing over your shoulder with my coat still on. The wire's been humming all morning and my coat still hasn't dried out from getting to the office, but that's beside the point — I want to see the hands do it, not the headline. I don't want your conclusion. I want the mechanics.
So here's the walk, near as I can follow it, and stop me if I've got a step wrong. Somebody at AAA doesn't get diesel prices phoned in — that'd be too easy. Somebody pulls what stations are actually charging that day, averages it, and puts out one number for the whole country. A survey, not a guess. On Friday, September 4th, that survey came back at five dollars and eighty-five cents a gallon. All-time high. An economist, in what I'd call a dry mood, posted online: "Trump did it."…
…(cont) That same weekend — and I want you to sit with the calendar on this one, because I had to sit with it twice — the President's son-in-law and a special envoy flew to Moscow, then on to Kyiv, trying to talk Russia and Ukraine into stopping the fighting. Different building. Same week. Same war sitting underneath both stories.
A week later, Friday the 11th, they ran the survey again: six dollars and six cents a gallon. Fourteen percent higher than the month before it. Sixty-four percent higher than the year before that. A petroleum analyst said, on the record, that the number "is not slowing down." That same Friday, a drone hit a pipeline in Saudi Arabia, and the energy markets got nervous about the Gulf all over again.
Two days after that — Sunday the 13th — the President stood in front of reporters and said Ukraine needs to stop hitting Russian oil refineries, that the strikes are "hurting the world." Told Zelenskyy, in so many words, to knock it off — that's the "one thing" he wants stopped. That same day, stock futures dipped on the same Saudi pipeline worry from Friday. Not on Ukraine. On Saudi Arabia.
I've walked it three times now, start to finish, and I keep landing on the same gap, so tell me if I'm missing a step here. The survey moved on the 4th, and it moved again on the 11th. Was a Ukrainian refinery strike anywhere in what moved it either time — or was it a war on Iran, and a drone on a pipeline in Saudi Arabia?
Excuse me — before you go — one more, and I promise this is the last time I bring it up, sorry. You told Zelenskyy to stop the one thing, the refineries, because the strikes are hurting the world, and I don't doubt that you believe it. But the number that's supposed to back that up — the one from Friday the 11th, the one I keep having to double back to, sorry — did a Ukrainian drone put it there, or was it already sitting at six-oh-six?
“They tell you Ukraine's drones are why diesel's at six bucks a gallon, like Zelenskyy's flying the pump prices himself. Diesel hit its record before anybody blamed Ukraine for a thing — the receipts say Iran, they say Saudi Arabia, they say Trump's own war. Guy running a delivery route just cares the gallon costs more than it did last month, and the fix on the table isn't aimed at the war that did it.”
“Look, the President's just asking Ukraine to knock off strikes that are "hurting the world" — his words, and frankly a country under invasion shouldn't be the one accused of setting global fuel markets on fire. Now, did diesel hit its record before he said any of that? I mean — that's a timeline thing, I'm not an economist. The point is Iran's not on the ballot in November and Ukraine kind of is, so.”
The receipts
"I'll meet with Putin. I'll meet with Zelensky... And within 24 hours, that war will be settled" - Trump, 10 May 2023 (one of 53 such promises tracked by CNN) CNN fact check, 25 April 2025 (all 53 instances)
Trump tells Zelenskyy to stop doing 'one thing' during attacks on RussiaPresident Donald Trump told reporters he wants Volodymyr Zelensky to stop hitting Russian diesel refineries, saying the strikes are causing a global fuel shortage.
The price of diesel fuel hit another record high on Friday, thanks in large part to President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran. New data released by the American Automobile Association showed the average price of diesel in the US increasing to $6.06, a 14% increase over the average price one month ago and a 64% increase from the…
Oil prices jumped and stock futures fell slightly on concerns that energy supplies from the Persian Gulf would be further diminished by a drone attack on a critical pipeline in Saudi Arabia.
President Trump said Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries were “hurting the world,” amid a global energy shock driven primarily by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Trump promised in 2023 he'd end the war within 24 hours of taking office - CNN counted 53 separate times he made that promise CNN fact check, 25 April 2025 (all 53 instances)
Trump says Ukraine needs to stop targeting Russian refineriesCivilians were killed and injured overnight into Sunday as both Russia and Ukraine kept up large-scale drone strikes.
· 'Trump Did It!': At $5.85 a Gallon, Diesel Price Hits All-Time High in US Thanks to War on Iran from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Witkoff, Kushner to visit Moscow and Kyiv in renewed push to end Russia-Ukraine war from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.