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Welcome to this weekend’s edition of the Surge, Slate’s politics newsletter. Oh, you think it’s “bad” or “completely and obviously illegal” that Donald Trump has used taxpayer dollars to air a campaign-season ad celebrating himself while the lyric “love me” plays repeatedly in the background? Sounds like you’ve got Trump Derangement Syndrome, cowpoke.

We are little more than a month from the stupid midterms, and Republicans Are in Disarray. They were specifically promised that the Iran war would not have trade-offs! Susan Collins is not concerned about a major story that dropped this week, but perhaps she should be. Plus, why do some Democrats keep describing one New York Republican House member as unbeatable? He may be with that attitude.

First up, though: If you’ve got some diesel sitting around the house, you could make a pretty penny on Facebook Marketplace.

The week Republicans in red states realized they’re going to have to hustle.

Everyone has understood for some time that this would be a favorable election cycle for Democrats. But this seemed to be the week that this passive knowledge blew into true panic for Republicans—in red states.

The Iran war raised energy prices since its inception. But it’s the recent price spike of diesel fuel, late in campaign season, that’s driven Republicans into a previously unseen fit of panic. A diesel price spike isn’t good for anyone who enjoys such things as, say, eating food or purchasing products. But it’s especially bad for big agricultural states, where margins were already thinned due to tariffs and fertilizer prices. Indeed, one of the truly unusual features of the Trump administration has been how the president has so specifically worked to make people’s lives difficult in places like, say, Iowa and Kansas.

Well, Iowa and Kansas have a bunch of races this........

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