In today's Jeffrey Sachs interview, topics covered are Ansar Allah attacks in Saudi Arabia, conditions in Yemen, a note on Russia sale of diesel, idiocy of EU leaders and their Riussophobia, the White House Press freedom issues, and the likely outcome of the coming election. Also some comment and reports from 4hunger.org and Notes on the Crises.
JUDGE- Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, October 12th, 2026. Professor Jeffrey Sachs joins us now. Professor Sachs, thank you very much for your time. Before we get to Trump's unconstitutional behavior, including unleashing the Department of Justice to investigate television networks for not covering him, as if that could possibly be an antitrust violation. I want to ask you a couple of other questions. How badly has Ansar Allah been damaging Saudi Arabia and what are the economic consequences of that damage?
SACHS- Oh, we're really seeing something very serious. Of course, we're seeing Saudis unable to prevent destruction in the heart of the kingdom in the oil fields, in control over the absolutely crucial Red Sea waterway and even at the airport of the capital city, so this is quite remarkable. It shows again the ability to project military force has diffused beyond what we imagine that Yemen is able to do this after the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars that the Saudis have spent on US military equipment that all seems to be essentially useless for them. It is quite amazing to see. But I think that this is absolutely startling what we're observing and of course very significant.
JUDGE- Are you surprised that the United States, notwithstanding the numerous requests of Muhammad bin Salman, a horrible human being, but he's the head of the government, has made of the president, President Trump. SACHS- Well, I think that Trump is in in absolutely a corner. The United States public wants this fighting not to escalate. An escalation could mean devastating economic consequences immediately in the US as if they're not bad enough already. So and of course, many military analysts say we simply don't have the equipment in place and we have run out of munitions. We don't have the ability to project force. The number of personnel in the area and so forth all dramatically reduced because of the destruction of the American military bases. Situation is dramatic. It's a good reason why Trump made a complete disaster in launching this war of whim against Iran on the 28th of February. This was a profound miscalculation that has enormous ramifications. JUDGE- How unstable is the Muhammad bin Salman dictatorship and what will his collapse do to the price of oil?
SACHS- Well, I don't think we can predict or should be predicting a collapse of the Saudi government right now, but I think we can unfortunately predict an escalation of fighting for months ahead because nothing has been resolved and Trump is unfortunately too incompetent just to go home and find a basic modus operandi with Iran that would make things settle down. He doesn't accept that because it would mean people calling him weak, and that means that the fighting is likely to escalate and we will have continued surprises that Iran and the Houthis and others will be able to wreak extraordinary damage in this region and that will continue essentially until the United States politically acknowledges that it can't do other than to leave and that's a very hard thing to do because Washington is filled with war mongers. There is a general feeling that we must always fight on to prove our honor and that leads to the occupation of Afghanistan for 20 years or of Iraq for more than 20 years, of Vietnam for all of those painful years. The United States has a proclivity to fight to complete exhaustion and disaster on our side and an ever-breaking public deficit and debt. And we've been at this for a long time and Trump stepped right into this minefield, unbelievably, and now we're absolutely without any normal exit.
JUDGE- Are the military attacks by Ansar Allah, sometimes called the Houthis religious in origin? Iranian intended. What is their goal here? Why is this weak rag-tag group trying to destroy the rich super, rich Saudi Arabia?
SACHS- It's not exactly a rag-tag group. That's first of all the reason that they can destroy airports, grab coastlines, and bomb oil fields. This is a part of what is now a complete failed state Yemen, that has hovered between one state, two states, no states and incredible civil clash for decades. In fact, I went to Yemen just once myself in 2009 and came back rather shocked by what looked like a completely explosive situation. It was not yet exploded, but the government was on its back. There was a major fiscal crisis, debt crisis, ecological crisis, poverty and so forth. And I came back and went to Washington and said, "This place is really dangerous. Do something about it." And the answer, of course, in Washington is, Yemen - what difference could Yemen possibly make? There was no interest whatsoever. And this is exactly why we are, where we are. Yemen has been extraordinarily impoverished, difficult to govern, divided ethnically for decades, and no serious attempt at all to help, of course, only to choose sides or to strengthen one combatant versus another. The battle with the Houthis goes back actually decades. This is a group from the mountainous region in the north that for many reasons objected to policies of the national government and when they protested in various ways they were quite brutally put down and they took up arms as a result of that. Actually part of it even dates to IMF austerity programs on an impoverished country that triggered cycles of unrest. But of course in Washington we don't care about such things. We don't care about poor people.
We don't care about crises of development. We're the tough guys. We'll just come in with our military and clean things up. Except that we can't and we don't, and it turns into a long-term disaster. So, I've not had a profound professional relationship with the country, but I did have enough of an experience before all hell broke loose to know that all hell was going to break loose. But I also had a typical experience that I've had over decades, which is that Washington is an unserious place. It thinks that nothing matters that can't be put down with American arms and then it finds itself in debacle after debacle which is what's happened now.
JUDGE- Switching gears, Professor Sachs, is there any merit whatsoever to President Trump's argument that the reason for the rise in energy prices in the US is not the war in Iran, but because the Ukrainians have been attacking Russian oil refineries?
SACHS- Of course not. Trump is the master of the 15-minute improvisation. He's desperate to find any way to get diesel prices down because his party is reeling in what looks like a very bad and very much deserved terrible election outcome. And so he's trying to do anything to improvise. That's Trump's method always. Don't think ahead, don't plan ahead. Operate purely on the shortest of possible time horizons and the United States is paying the consequences of having this completely inconsequential president.
JUDGE- Wow. Do we know if Trump and Putin actually entered into an agreement whereby the Russians would send about 9 days' worth of diesel, about nine days' worth of diesel to American big oil because there hasn't been a peep about this from the Pentagon.
SACHS- It's perfectly plausible to me. It looks like a commercial deal. It could be just the kind of thing that Kushner and Witkoff deal in. So, it wouldn't surprise me. I certainly have no inside information on it, but Trump has gone out on a political limb for something and I suppose that it is for some shipments of Russian diesel to the US. I don't see any reason for him to make that claim which is politically harmful for him in fact, if it doesn't actually exist, that deal. So I would guess that it's happening. The backlash that he's found in Washington is very strong. It's not going to help him in the elections. It makes him look as short-term, as he is, and it definitely diminishes this sense of a capable leader no matter whether it does or doesn't have a slight impact on diesel prices. So I doubt that that part of this is being faked because it doesn't help him politically to fake it. But it this whole so-called deal has no real consequence whatsoever on the war or on diesel prices or on the Republican Party prospects in the short time to the election.
JUDGE- So, shortly after President Trump announced the so-called deal with the Russians, he said that it's time for the Ukrainians to have a new president. It's time for Zelensky to go. I don't know if that's part of the deal or not, but shortly after he said that, the commanding general of NATO said this. Number 14, Chris.
General Grynkewich (in video)- "No one should mistake our defensive nature for weakness or lack of resolve. Through our collective strength, we aim to deter and keep the peace. But if someone is foolish enough to attack us, we will fight. We will stop the attack and deny them the ability to achieve their objectives, whatever those may be. So, it's important that allies continue to consult, think about how we might respond, and make sure that we message clearly and concisely to the Russians where our red lines are." JUDGE- And you wonder why Sergey Lavrov is worried about NATO. Why on earth would he be making statements like that?
SACHS- Look, NATO generals make statements like that on a daily basis for a living. But what was striking was not this statement. What was striking was the complete shit-show if I may say so. After Trump attacked Zelensky and Zelensky attacked Trump and then the deal was announced and then all the Europeans came out a aghast at what Trump has done. Where's the alliance? There is no alliance right now. Is Trump going to invade Greenland? Which side is he on in Ukraine? Look, I don't want there to be a side. I want the war to end. Just to be clear, I think the whole point of this war is completely pointless. But there is no consultation with allies. [laughter] There's nothing that resembles a working system. So I think the general's statement is a typical statement but completely bizarre. The real news of the last two days is nobody consults with anybody. It's absolutely bizarre what's happening. Europe and the United States are at each other's throats. Ukraine and Trump, Zelensky and Trump are at each other's throats. Welcome to another day in in the Trump era.
JUDGE- Why would President Putin trust something Donald Trump said on the telephone after his unsavory experience at Anchorage in which they looked each other in the eye and shook hands and that deal didn't come to pass. Well, why do you think he trusts him on anything?
SACHS- I don't see any evidence of actually extending trust. Maybe he's selling some diesel or shipping some diesel and he's going to get paid for it. But the Russians have continued their military operation completely in disregard of the last two days as if that's just a total sideshow which it is. They're just continuing to do militarily what they have been doing and there's no trust in the sense of any grand development. There is no energy ceasefire, nothing like that. Trump makes announcements. He says things everybody knows that they're meaningless actually. And the Russians continue their military operations. The Ukrainians continue theirs though Russia is crushing Ukraine at this point and it's going to be a tragedy unless somewhere somehow a grown-up stands up and says in Europe - this should stop otherwise the Europeans are going to love Ukraine to its death. That's what's happening right now.
Every profession of support for Ukraine is just another nail in Ukraine's coffin. These people are so obtuse so bizarrely neglectful of the basic realities right now which is that Russia is absolutely causing punishing damage to Ukraine cities. Kiev could be unlivable in days or weeks the way things are going because of the destruction of the energy systems, the transport systems, the water and sewage systems. God knows where this could go in the next days or weeks. And all the Europeans think about is we love Ukraine so much we tell them to fight on until they're destroyed. That seems to be the logic.
JUDGE- So, two weeks ago, Trump signed into law the Lindsey Graham Act, which made it the public policy of the United States of America to impose secondary sanctions on any countries that buy Russian oil and prohibited American oil companies from buying Russian oil.
SACHS- Judge, that was two weeks ago. Why do you bring that up? We operate in 15-minute segments. That was a whole two weeks ago. We forgot that. That's irrelevant. That has nothing to do with anything. We're in 15-minute land. That's all.
JUDGE- I mean, it's really what does this do? And you must hear off the record comments from the diplomats and academics with whom you visit on an almost daily basis. What does behavior like this do to the reputation of the United States and its ability to conduct diplomacy? I know you're going to tell me they don't that we don't conduct diplomacy.
SACHS- I was with a leading politician yesterday. I won't mention the name, who just shook his head [laughter] in disbelief. This is so crazy it's hard to imagine. That is the general view. The only point in Trump's favor is that the Europeans act equally stupidly. I have to say most of these heads of state, whether it's Burnham in the UK or Macron or Merz, you don't know which is worse with them and with Trump. Trump is all over the place in total contradiction, but these Europeans are all in the same place, which is to continue a war that's going to get their supposed friend completely destroyed because they can't understand that wars have political reasons that can be resolved politically. And in the case of Ukraine, the political reason is the overreach of NATO, an American-led coup in 2014, and the Europeans who are so Russophobic that they can't understand that there are two sides of an argument that could be resolved diplomatically. So honestly, it's not just Trump. it is that we have a class of politicians right now in the western world that is absolutely incompetent to a shocking extent, and it's reflected in the fact that none of them that lasts for more than a few weeks after they have come into office, maintains any kind of public support. Merz is down to I don't know, 15% approval and 60, 70, 80% disapproval. Macron, you can't even find his approval ratings right now. The kids of the country are out on the streets in the hundreds of thousands. Schools don't work. The country is being shut down and Macron is there doing his war dance. It's just incredible.
JUDGE- The Sherman Antitrust Act with which I know you're familiar, basically says any contract or combination restraint of interstate trade for a commercial purpose is unlawful. I raised my voice for a commercial purpose because the Department of Justice under the Trump sycophant who is the attorney general, Trump's former personal lawyer in his one of his criminal cases, is now investigating CBS, ABC, CNN and Fox because they all agreed to stop covering the White House while three of them were banned from covering the White House. And the DOJ claims that this decision was somehow a criminal violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. To me, this is a profound attack on the freedom of the Press.
SACHS- Of course.
JUDGE- the DOJ should have said to the president, "We're not doing it." SACHS- Yes, but the Department of Justice is something akin to our Department of Defense. It was renamed the Department of War in the latter case. This one should be named the Department of Injustice. These are lackeys that follow Trump's line to commit every kind of abuse and crime in the name of law. So this is deploying law as political weaponry and revenge. This is not upholding any kind of rule of law at all. And I saw that a Congresswoman's house was raided today from what I understand.
JUDGE- Yes.
SACHS- And this is something we've just not had in America before. But this is the actions not of a popular despot, this is the actions of a desperate man who has completely lost his way and lost his base and will soon lose the vote.
JUDGE- So allowing Paramount to buy Time Warner and CNN and CBS.
SACHS- This is not antitrust.
JUDGE- It's not an antitrust.
SACHS- This has nothing to do with antitrust.
JUDGE- Right. But five reporters deciding not to cover the president for a week is an antitrust violation. What am I missing here?
SACHS- You're not missing anything except the complete disarray of government. And Americans are learning that while a lot in our country can go on without government, there are limits to that. And we have reached a level of disarray that is utterly uncharacteristic of the American system. It's going to get worse. It's not going to get better. In the coming months, though, Trump's political base will continue to shrink and he will become more and more erratic. And the question is can some grown-up behavior in Washington control this before the damage becomes even more extraordinary than it already is? And this is going to be the real test of our system. And it's on its way.
JUDGE- Here's someone you probably don't frequently agree with, and I don't either, but he has some ominous warnings for his former boss: Steve Bannon, on what to expect in January. Chris number 13.
BANNON (in video)-"I think if we lose the House, we're in trouble because I think I've always been an advocate that House, like the founders set it up as the House of Commons, all revenue, all spending, the investigative apparatus. I think it just bogs down everything President Trump's going to do. And they're not going to be able to, as much as they try to convince people they're going to be able to control their more radical elements, they're just not. I think you'll see Bobby Kennedy impeached. I think you'll see Pete Hegseth impeached. I think you'll see subpoenas flying every day. They will look to destroy President Trump and will be bogged down for two years."
SACHS- I think that's actually a very correct assessment. Richly deserved by a president that has run amuck and that has no strategy other than trying to destroy people that he doesn't like. But I think it is true that even the control of one house by the Democrats will be a complete change of American politics. Nothing will pass, no budgets will pass, no legislation will pass, and unlike now when there are no investigations in Congress whatsoever, because it's Republican controlled, there will be investigatory power and it will be used. And in any event, when it's clear that Trump's power has drained and his base has drained and that the United States is boxed in and that the fiscal crisis is as serious as it is and that there's no economic strategy whatsoever, all eyes will turn to 2028 actually. So, we're going to have a very long period of focus on essentially the next election cycle and Trump is not going to factor in that despite all of the claims to the contrary. So, I think Bannon has it right. And those who say it won't make too much difference because Trump already rules by decree are missing the point that Trump has no institutional opposition in Washington right now because both houses of Congress are run by his party. And in Congress, when you control each of the committees, you set the agenda. You set the controls on subpoenas, on investigations, on hearings, on the public discourse. And that is going to change if we have an honest, peaceful election in November.
JUDGE- That's an if,
SACHS- But if we do, it's going to change dramatically.
JUDGE- You mentioned a Congresswoman's home being raided. This was Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, born in Somalia. Came over here at age two. Jeff, the raid was not by FBI. It was by the DHS. Now, the last time I turned around, the DHS doesn't engage in criminal prosecutions. I don't know how they got a search warrant and what the probable cause of crime was.
The Washington Post says they're looking to check her naturalization. She's 42 years old. They want to check her naturalization from 40 years ago when the documents were filled out by her parents, because she's an outspoken opponent of his.
SACHS- Of course, we're going to see more and more abuse of power, more and more drastic and dangerous behavior, and plummeting support for this man. This is really our very complex and difficult situation. We're entering a deepening political crisis. But it's absolutely important that this growing lawlessness of this White House needs to be checked. That's why this election is so crucial. But checking that will have a dramatic effect on his power, no doubt. But it will not stop extraordinarily reckless behavior. And that is again where we're going to face our biggest crisis, a president that is railing against the world that has lost his base, lost his public support, lost his majority in at least one if not both houses of Congress. This is going to be a very dangerous period.
JUDGE- I just finished drafting my column this week. It's about the harshest criticism I've ever leveled on these people. And it's about the announcement to live stream an execution using military sharpshooters. This is a descent into barbarism, Jeff.
SACHS- Britain stopped its public executions in 1783, if I remember the date correctly and the United States is entering a barbaric period right now. Again, this doesn't display power or blood lust of the public. This displays a president who has lost it, surrounded by these toadies and lackeys and sycophants and posers like Hegseth. It's gross, but it's dangerous. So it's not to diminish the danger, but it is to say the American people do not deserve this at all. And anyone abroad should understand the revulsion is rising throughout our country because this is not what the American people want. This is not our system of government. This is not our rule of law and the behavior is becoming extraordinarily erratic.
JUDGE- Professor Sachs, thank you very much. I know we were all across the board, but I deeply appreciate your thoughts and comments. We'll see you next week unless something dramatic happens this week in which any anytime-
SACHS- I'll be around.
JUDGE- All right. Thank you.
SACHS- Thanks a lot. Bye-bye. All the best.
§Two days ago on Transition Protocol, their sources identified top isra3li Generals in Riyadh, a very bad sign. EVERY ONE of these imperial influences must be pried out of West Asia and all these Gulf nations stand united in one block, end external manipulation, including recycling their funds into US bonds, storing their "wealth" in NY Fed, for example, and accepting US bailouts.
As for the importing of Russian diesel, just how long does it take for those ships to transit the ocean, carrying 9-day's supply of oil - just in time for the elections? Or is expectations enough to carry the day.
Other news:
Read this report by 4hunger.org! The Grain Is There. The World's Hungry Can't Reach It. And El Niño Won't Wait. The world is not running out of grain this year. It is running out of grain that poor countries can reach at a price they can pay.
"Pass it on: Most people have never heard that the strongest El Niño on record is colliding with a grain market that is already stretched. Share this piece with someone who will make the call too. Major news outlets are barely covering this, so it is up to us to spread the alert."§
"If El Niño does what it has done before, drying out harvests in India, Australia and South Africa, while the major traditional donor countries keep holding back aid, the result will be a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. It will be the best-predicted humanitarian crisis in history, and no one will be able to say they did not see it coming."
Why do central banks keep flubbing monetary policy? On the Ersatz Nobel: The Old Monetary Policy is Dying, and The New Monetary Policy Struggles to be Born - By Notes on the Crises - Oct 13 - Analysis of recent economic thought, this edition isn't pay-walled.
Leave a comment! This is a re-direct to my Substack page.
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