As the mid-term elections in the United States approach, the Trump administration is resorting to ever more desperate measures to try to defy opinion polls which indicate that the vote for the Democrats will be strong, perhaps strong enough to deprive the president of Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress.

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The most egregious is Donald Trump's decision to pay Russia billions of dollars in return for the Kremlin releasing 300,000 tonnes of diesel on to the world market, so, Mr Trump hopes, easing the elevated cost of fuel which has turned voters off him.

He has decided to ease sanctions on Russia just as it is intensifying its war against Ukraine. On top of that, only a few weeks ago Mr Trump signed legislation authorising fresh US sanctions on nations that import Russian oil and gas.

The hypocrisy would take our breath away were it not par for the course over the nearly two years of the administration in Washington.

Nor is it likely to work. The expert opinion is that the price of fuel in the United States is unlikely to fall much before the elections on November 3 when all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and just over a third of the Senate will be contested. Democratic majorities would constrain Mr Trump's malign abilities.

In the meantime, and for that reason, Mr Trump is clearly getting desperate, and desperate men do desperate things.

We have already had the........

© Canberra Times