"Sorry, what was that?" one critic hit back at the president on social media.
  • Tomtits@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    371·
    2 days ago

    “We have a lot of oil,” said Trump. “We were the number one producer anywhere in the world times two by double, at least double. Now I think it’s much higher than that. But we do it. It’s almost like we do it for habit, but we also do it for some very good allies that we have in the Middle East.”

    What the fuck does that even mean?

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      2 days ago

      What he’s trying to convey is that non-US countries (like in Europe) are mostly the ones who consume fossil fuels from the Middle East. The US makes more than it consumes.

      In Trump fashion, he’s oversimplifying a lot (including what type of fuels are produced and where), but that sentiment isn’t wrong. Yes, Europe buys oil that goes through the strait.

      So what he’s arguing to NATO countries is “come save your own oil. You need it more than we do.” In spite of the clickbait headline and Tweets, he’s trying to sell the conflict to them.

      That, of course, ignores a lot. Like:

      • …The US started the conflict.

      • Is it even winnable? See: Iraq. A far smaller country and military, in less difficult terrain.

      • The oil trade is a mix of a free-ish market and independent cartels. Cutting off “EU oil” will raise US gas pump prices because US producers will just sell to Europe, to the extent infrastructure allows. So I don’t think it would disproportionately hurt Europe in particular.

      • My impression is the EU kinda wants to get away from petro, anyway.

    • dude@lemmings.worldOPMEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      He means that US produces so much oil that even if Iran causes disruption, US will happily sell the oil to the Middle East as well