The News You Need on Friday, May 8th, 2026.
Ukraine gains advantage in war, Putin is hiding out fearing for his life and is the Epstein class immune in the New York courts?
How Trump and the Saudi Crown Prince Had a Falling Out
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung & NBC News
Scott: When the history of Donald Trump’s Gulf War is written, it will likely figure prominently in the debate about whether personal eccentricities of leaders or the rational analysis of state interests drive conflict in the 21st century.
Since E.H. Carr raised this contradiction in What Is History (1961), the rational analysis types have had the upper hand. But Trump—who is portrayed in this week’s Economist as the reincarnation of Caligula—offers the perfect counterpoint. Momentous decisions are made based on whispered comments he didn’t understand, elements of personal pique and animosities which are often rooted in racism.
It may well be that the turning point in this war occurred this week, when Saudi Arabia and Kuwait told Trump that he could not use US facilities on their soil to carry out “Project Freedom”—an operation designed to demonstrate the supremacy of US naval power in the Strait of Hormuz while a ceasefire was supposedly in place and he was assuring Congress that the war was over.
What caused the rupture in relations between the Gulf Arab States and Trump?
The bottom line is assuredly this: They opened the door to a US military presence in the Gulf assuming it would protect them against their enemy. But, instead, this move made them much more of a target than before, and thus more vulnerable.
Furthermore, Trump habitually acted in the early morning hours without consulting them, uttered indelicate, coarse and demeaning comments about leaders around the Gulf and lacked or was unable to articulate the actual objectives and strategies for his war.
And the fact that he was caught on camera at Mar-a-Lago saying the Saudi Crown Prince had to “kiss my ass” certainly didn’t help. NBC was the first to break this story; Frankfurter Allgemeine presents a first draft.
Donald Trump’s announced mission to guide ships safely through the Strait of Hormuz has apparently met with massive resistance from Saudi Arabia, the US’s most important Arab ally. The American president announced “Project Freedom” on Sunday and made a U-turn on Tuesday.
The project was being suspended “at the request of Pakistan and other countries,” Trump said. The pause is also being made because of his country’s “enormous military successes” and “great progress” in diplomatic efforts to end the war with Iran.
As the broadcaster NBC now reports, Trump concealed the embarrassing fact that his withdrawal followed strong resistance from Saudi Arabia. Citing two American government officials, it was said that the leadership in Riyadh had threatened to revoke the American military’s permission to use the Prince Sultan Air Base and Saudi airspace. Both are considered important for use in the Gulf.
Even a phone call between Trump and the Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler Muhammad Bin Salman could not resolve the disagreement. NBC further reported that US allies in the Gulf were surprised by the move and were angry about it. A later media report said that Kuwait had also closed its airspace for the project.
Trump’s Gulf Arab allies view him as a loser in the struggle with Iran. They are now focused on ending the conflict with a minimum of humiliation. An agreement along the lines of Obama’s JCPOA is seen as the obvious escape hatch.
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Charles: As we explain in our statement of principles, Scott and I are, above and beyond anything else, relentless critics of the press who believe that the frank facism and shameless corruption of the Trump administration make the old customs of deference incompatible with the kind of journalism the United States needs right now.
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Money Talks, Nobody Walks
Charles: Every single thing in the Trump administration is pay for play, but nobody is getting a bigger return on their investment than Big Oil.
During his last presidential campaign, Trump famously asked the oil companies for $1 billion in contributions. Truthout could only find a measly $96 million that went directly to Trump’s presidential campaign, plus another $80 million from oil and gas companies for ads supporting Trump and Republicans, or advertisements promoting the industry during the 2024 election cycle.
While drivers in thirteen states now get to pay more than $5 a gallon for gas (California $6.37, Nevada $5.53, Hawaii $5.48, Oregon $5.46, Washington $5.46) thanks to the most idiotic war of modern times, Shell Oil just reported an astonishing $6.92 billion quarterly profit.
The company produced 4 percent less oil and gas than it did in the previous quarter, mostly because of missile strikes that reduced Quatar’s natural-gas export capacity. But Shell’s CEO Wael Sawan told The New York Times that was nothing to worry about: “When you have a real disruption like what we experienced from a supply point like Qatar, our portfolio is still able to respond and be able to create value.”
The Times pointed out the rest of the oil business was also in rather good shape: Britain’s BP more than doubled its profit in the first quarter, to $3.2 billion, from the previous quarter, and France’s TotalEnergies, had quarterly net income of $5.4 billion, which meant it was raising its dividend and doubling its share buybacks.
For once Chuck Schumer had exactly the right reaction to this news:
“Trump’s Big Oil donors are making $30 MILLION PER HOUR. And they’re laughing in our faces all the way to the bank.
Just another reason we must immediately end this war.”
