Michael McFaul
Role at the time: Former U.S. ambassador to Russia and Stanford professor, in a post on X
Statement summary
Michael McFaul said Trump was trying to correct for high gas prices, which he blamed on what he called Trump's "ill-conceived and unnecessary war against Iran", by paying a Russian dictator billions of dollars, and that more Ukrainians would die as a result.
“He is now trying to correct for his mistake by paying a brutal, imperialist Russian dictator billions of dollars.”
Michael McFaul's own post on X.
Why we used this label
The case asks whether the U.S. should ease sanctions on Russian diesel to lower fuel prices, as the administration did on October 9. McFaul says Trump is "paying a brutal, imperialist Russian dictator billions of dollars" and that as a result more Ukrainians will die. That opposes the arrangement, so we labeled it Condemned. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional; it loses because the post contains no support for it.