The President calls Putin and then announces eased Russian oil sanctions.

OK. Hold on a minute. Monday morning. Two weeks into a war the President says is almost over and his Defense Secretary says is just beginning, the President of the United States picks up the phone and calls Vladimir Putin. The call, by the White House readout, is about the war. The call, by the Kremlin readout, is about bilateral matters. That is the standard pair of opposite descriptions you get when one side is announcing the substance and the other side is protecting it.

Right after the call, hon, the U.S. Treasury issues a general license authorizing the otherwise sanctionable delivery of Russian crude oil to India.

Pause. Let me say that again. The President of the United States, mid-war, mid-strait-of-Hormuz-crisis, in the single most important week for global oil markets in fifteen years, picks up the phone, calls Russia, and eases sanctions on Russian oil sales to India, the third-largest importer of crude on the planet, a country that also buys Iranian oil.

Hon. The war, on the Pentagon’s stated objectives, is about Iran’s oil. The Iranian oil is off the market because the Strait of Hormuz is closed. The Strait of Hormuz is closed because the war started. The price of oil is up because the Strait is closed. The Russian oil, on the Russian export side, is now easier to sell to India because the general license says so.

So the war, hon, with one hand, closes the Iranian oil. And the general license, with the other hand, opens the Russian oil. And the guy who closed the Iranian oil, hon, is the same guy who opened the Russian oil. And in the middle of both decisions, he picked up the phone and called the Russian President.

That, hon, is what we call in Atlantic City a coordinated bet. You bet one chip on red at table six and one chip on black at table seven and you tell the house you are just diversifying. You are not diversifying, hon. You are moving the same money between the same hand and the other same hand. The house knows. The house always knows.

The same Monday afternoon, the Defense Secretary takes the podium and says, quote, today will be, yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran. He sends more bombers. He sends more fighters. He says the military objectives are being met.

The military objectives, hon, on the fact sheet released by the White House, include destroying the regime’s ballistic missiles, annihilating the Iranian regime’s navy, and preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. They do not include easing sanctions on Russian crude.

The easing of sanctions on Russian crude, hon, is not anywhere in the Annual Threat Assessment. It is not in the State Department briefing book. It is not in the NSC strategic guidance. It is not in the talking points. It is on a Federal Register notice with a date stamp of the afternoon the President got off the phone with Putin.

You ever notice how the people who say they are fighting the Iranian oil regime are the same people easing the path for the Russian oil regime in the same week?

Funny how that works.