House gives Trump a hammer to crush allies and the poor

By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit · September 17, 2026

The House of Representatives just handed President Donald Trump a geopolitical sledgehammer, and they’re calling it "moral courage." On Wednesday, the House passed the Lindsey O.

The House of Representatives just handed President Donald Trump a geopolitical sledgehammer, and they’re calling it "moral courage." On Wednesday, the House passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 in a 262-159 vote—a tally that included 58 Democrats who decided that the urgency of the war in Ukraine outweighed the danger of an unchecked executive. The Senate had already cleared the path with an 86-11 vote back in August.

On the surface, the bill is a blunt instrument designed to bleed the Russian regime. It targets Vladimir Putin, Russian financial institutions like Sberbank and Gazprombank, and the "shadow fleet" of tankers keeping the Russian economy on life support. But if you follow the money downward, past the patriotic rhetoric, you find a provision that should terrify every person living paycheck to paycheck: the authority for President Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the top five importers of Russian oil and gas.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) framed this as a "moral issue," arguing that the U.S. must do everything possible to "cripple the Russian war machine." That is the strongest version of the argument: that the only way to stop a dictator who understands only force is to make the cost of his energy exports prohibitively expensive for the rest of the world. But "moral courage" is a convenient mask for a blank check. As Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) warned, this bill creates a loophole allowing the president to define almost any country as a facilitator of sanctions evasion, hitting them with massive tariffs with "no guardrails or oversight."

The Bill Always Lands on the People Who Can't Afford It

We have seen this movie before, and the credits always roll with the working class paying the tab. When energy is weaponized as a geopolitical tool, the resulting price shocks don't hit the billionaires in their gated communities; they hit the people in zip codes like the one I grew up in in Flint.

Look at the 1973 oil crisis. The mechanism was the same: energy resources used as a weapon to force political behavior. The result wasn't just a diplomatic shift; it was a global economic convulsion where prices increased 400%, triggering inflation and instability that gutted the middle class. By granting the president the power to slap 100% tariffs on countries like India and China, this bill isn't just targeting Putin—it's inviting a new era of price volatility.

The Times of India reports that Senator Richard Blumenthal told India and China they "better clean up your act" and buy their energy elsewhere. But India's Ministry of External Affairs was blunt: they are committed to energy security for 1.4 billion people. When the U.S. government decides that "energy security" for the global poor is a secondary concern to a tariff war, the cost is pushed onto the consumer. We saw a version of this during the 2018 United States tariffs on steel and aluminum, where the "national security" justification served as a cover for trade wars that raised costs for American manufacturers and workers.

This isn't a new strategy; it's a refined one. From the secondary sanctions used during the JCPOA to the diplomatic pressure applied during the Arab Spring, the U.S. has long used economic leverage to force alignment. But those were surgical strikes. This bill is a carpet bombing of the global trade system.

Handing the Keys to a Man Who Loves the Hammer

The most dangerous part of this legislation isn't the sanctions on the Kremlin—it's the trust it places in the man signing the bill. The Kyiv Independent notes that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for "personal decisions" from President Trump to support Ukraine. But the history of those "personal decisions" is a record of volatility.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) hit the nail on the head when he reminded the House that "this president has always said he loves tariffs." We know exactly how this works. Trump doesn't use tariffs as a temporary bridge to a diplomatic solution; he uses them as a permanent tool of coercion. By granting him the power to unilaterally decide who is "evading" sanctions, Congress has effectively outsourced U.S. foreign policy to the whims of one man.

The bill includes a 15% exemption for countries importing a small fraction of Russia's gas, and the US Trade Representative is supposed to review the list every 180 days. In the world of concentrated power, those are not "guardrails"—they are suggestions. We saw the pattern start with the Crimean crisis in 2014, where sanctions became a permanent fixture of the relationship. But this bill evolves that pattern into something far more aggressive. It doesn't just isolate Russia; it threatens to alienate every major ally who refuses to bend to a tariff threat.

The Korea Herald highlights the tension already simmering. When you tell a country with 1.4 billion people to "clean up their act" or face 100% tariffs, you aren't conducting diplomacy; you're issuing an ultimatum. If Trump uses these powers to pressure EU allies or India, he won't be "turning the tide toward peace"—he'll be fracturing the very coalition needed to actually isolate Putin.

The Price of a Propaganda Victory

The supporters of this bill, like Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland), argue that failing to pass it would mean "cheers in the Kremlin and tears in Kyiv." They are using the tragedy of Ukraine to railroad through a massive expansion of executive power. It is a classic bait-and-switch: use a genuine moral crisis to justify a policy that serves the interest of concentrated power.

The reality is that this bill provides a short-term propaganda victory for the U.S. while embedding long-term economic damage into U.S. law. As Rep. Beyer noted, the damage will be "embedded" long after the current headlines fade. We are trading the stability of the global energy market for the ability of one man to play "strongman" with the world's economy.

The historical record is clear: when the government grants the executive unchecked power to manipulate trade and energy, the costs land on the vulnerable. My father’s union hall taught me that you never sign a contract where the boss gets to change the rules unilaterally. Yet, Congress just signed a contract with the presidency that does exactly that.

This bill is not a victory for democracy; it is a surrender of legislative oversight. By gifting Donald Trump the power to trigger global price shocks under the guise of "crippling" Russia, Congress has ensured that the American worker and the global poor will be the ones paying the price for Putin's war. It is a reckless gamble that mistakes volatility for strength and a blank check for leadership.

House gives Trump a hammer to crush allies and the poor

The Bill Always Lands on the People Who Can't Afford It

Handing the Keys to a Man Who Loves the Hammer

The Price of a Propaganda Victory

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