President Joe Biden has a lot of reasons to be furious with his national security team who, against his better judgment, systematically pressured him for 18 months to do an about-face on Saudi Arabia.

The White House has reportedly been in a state of „spasm and panic“ since Wednesday, when it became clear that several of the U.S.‘s Persian Gulf partners, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were set to commit what the White House considered „a hostile act“: an extensive cut in oil production coordinated with Russia‘s Vladimir Putin, which will send oil prices soaring and very likely harm Democrats in the U.S. midterm elections in November.