Britain’s government has entered what can only be described as a hostage negotiation with a man who controls the petrol pump. UK diesel has hit £2 per litre—a price point that makes even the most stoic RAC spokesperson reach for words like “misery”—and the reason is delightfully straightforward: Donald Trump wants cheaper fuel for American voters before November, so he is threatening to ban diesel exports. Europe’s solution? Beg him not to.
The geopolitics here are a masterclass in modern desperation. A US-Israel conflict with Iran has already disrupted global oil supplies. Prices soared. Then Trump, surveying the landscape of electoral opportunity, decided that what America really needed was for him to personally solve the fuel crisis by simply forbidding other countries from selling what they produce. It is the economic equivalent of solving a traffic jam by banning left turns.
Meanwhile, UK Defence Secretary John Healey is in talks with Washington to prevent a ban that would crater British fuel supplies. Picture the scene: a senior British minister, probably holding a phone to his ear, explaining to the world’s most powerful man why diesel exports matter, while petrol stations at home are running on fumes and drivers are reconsidering their entire relationship with cars.
The absurdity is not lost on anyone. The UK cannot control global oil prices. Trump cannot actually control the laws of supply and demand by tweet. And yet here we are, with a government frantically negotiating to prevent a self-inflicted American policy from making British prices even worse. It is less energy crisis, more energy farce—a reminder that sometimes the most powerful people in the world are just as confused as the rest of us, except they have the button to make it everyone’s problem.