TRUMP / G7 / DIESEL
"It was never really on the table but what Europe did is a great thing. We are not going to be doing the export ban."
"President Trump, in particular, was very clear on this point." — — Emmanuel Macron, October 2, on the G7 pledge of no energy export restrictions between members
September 22, at the UN, beside Zelensky: "I have called for it. I have called for it within my people." Bessent, same table, says they are examining whether a full or partial ban would work. Within hours API's Mike Sommers condemns it, refiner shares drop, and by the 25th a letter from API, AFPM, IPAA and a wall of chambers asks the President to reject the idea, noting they agree with his own Energy Secretary. September 27, Presidents Cup: "We may do it." September 30, Oval Office: still undecided, still on the table. October 1, Wright on Fox: "highly confident" Europe will open its tanks, "positive news coming." October 2: the G7 releases 100 million barrels with a frontloaded diesel tranche in 20 days — and commits its members to no energy export restrictions among themselves. Then the South Lawn, and the thing was never really on the table. Read the trade, not the reversal. For ten days an announced presidential threat sat on the diesel market, moved share prices, triggered a lobbying blitz, and — per anonymous Reuters sourcing, which stays anonymous here — was pointed at Berlin and Paris. It was then surrendered in writing for a four-month drawdown of someone else's reserves. The drawdown ends in February. The commitment does not. Everyone who opposed it won inside two weeks, and the official account is that there was nothing to oppose.