Saks urges president to voice Estonia’s dissatisfaction with Trump

Estonia should publicly express its dissatisfaction if it disagrees with US President Donald Trump’s statements and actions, presidential security adviser Rainer Saks said on the ERR programme Ringvaade.

Trump said on Friday that he had made a diesel fuel deal with Russia. After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the deal, Trump said it was time for Ukraine to choose a new president.

Saks said Trump’s remarks showed personal frustration with Zelensky’s actions and that it was important to distinguish factual claims from political judgments. He advised newly appointed President Ülle Madise to consult the prime minister and foreign minister first to understand Estonia’s position.

“If we are unhappy with what President Trump has done, we have to express that somehow. We cannot simply ignore it when people ask us what we think,” Saks said.

Trump has also threatened to stop sharing intelligence with Ukraine again. Saks said he would not make too much of the threat, and compared it with efforts by former US President Joe Biden to limit Ukraine’s actions against Russia near the end of his term, partly to control oil prices.

Some of the diesel fuel consumed does come from Russia onto the global market, Saks said, but he described the loss of supply routes in the Middle East as the bigger problem. He said Trump’s frustration was driven less by attacks on Russian oil refineries than by a desire to lower diesel and other fuel prices in the United States before the midterm elections. With Republicans currently in a weak position, Saks said, Russia was exploiting that vulnerability.