Barbara on the diesel squeeze: Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries, Trump's threat to halt U.S. exports unless Europe released emergency stocks, and a G7 release of 100 million barrels as the start of a 35-day economic offensive into the midterms.
A steel plant broke ground in Iowa. South Korea signed on to LNG and eight nuclear plants. Trump killed the phrase artificial intelligence. Meanwhile the other side wants you staring at the pump.
Today's show is over. Please check the replay and join us live next week. Iowa’s steel mill Monday. Alaska LNG and Korea’s energy package Wednesday. Same fight: will America build a productive system — or keep staring at the pump? Bring your questions.
Barbara on the diesel squeeze: Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries, Trump's threat to halt U.S. exports unless Europe released emergency stocks, and a G7 release of 100 million barrels as the start of a 35-day economic offensive into the midterms.
Barbara Boyd opens with diesel: as Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries tighten the world's supply, President Trump threatened to halt U.S. diesel exports unless Europe released its emergency stocks, and the G7 agreed to release 100 million barrels. She presents it as the opening move of a 35-day economic offensive running into the midterms. The week of action includes Trump's visit to the Peterbilt truck plant in Denton, Texas, where employee Sarah Renshaw credited tariffs for 1,000 new jobs; his Oklahoma rally; a White House luncheon with tech leaders on superintelligence; what the White House calls the largest steel plant ever built in the United States, coming to Iowa; Vice President Vance at the groundbreaking of Saronic's Port Alpha shipyard in Brownsville, Texas; and South Korea's plans for an Alaska LNG pipeline, a 6-gigawatt power plant in Texas and eight nuclear reactors. On affordability, the episode walks through price increases under Biden (energy up 33% from January 2021 to January 2025), Vice President Vance on the inflation crisis he says the administration inherited, refining capacity, housing regulation and immigration, Secretary Kennedy at the MAHA Summit on AI giving every patient a better-informed second opinion, and the White House fraud task force's crackdown on Obamacare enrollments. It closes with Michael Shellenberger's account of the student riots in France, French intelligence tying the movement to Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Unbowed (LFI), and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on a new golden age of space exploration.
Barbara Boyd
00:00 The Saturday Wrap-Up - EUROPE CAVES: Trump's Diesel Ultimatum Drops U.S. Prices — Here's Why - October 3, 2026
02:04 The Offensive Begins
06:29 The Touchstones of Affordability
11:49 The French Riots
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A steel plant broke ground in Iowa. South Korea signed on to LNG and eight nuclear plants. Trump killed the phrase artificial intelligence. Meanwhile the other side wants you staring at the pump.
Today's show is over. Please check the replay and join us live next week. Iowa’s steel mill Monday. Alaska LNG and Korea’s energy package Wednesday. Same fight: will America build a productive system — or keep staring at the pump? Bring your questions.
Susan contrasts Trump’s Iowa mega mill and first U.S. iron ore mine in 50 years—tariffs, EXIM credit, mine-to-mill—with Carney’s summit: airport concessions, raw exports, and only 8 non-military factories.
Gas prices are the bait. The fight is Iowa’s planned steel mill, Minnesota’s new iron mine, and whether America builds its own productive system—or stays a captive market for London’s price war. Join Barbara, Susan, and Adam live Thursday.
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