Trump guts the Lindsey Graham Act to appease Vladimir Putin

By Emilio Quesada · Reporting from Miami · October 17, 2026

President Trump waived new sanctions and tariffs on Russia to lower fuel prices before midterms, betraying Congress and Ukraine while weaponizing leverage against Kyiv.

The executive waiver that nullified a bipartisan statute to appease the Kremlin

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Friday. It waived the core sanctions, restrictions, and duties mandated by the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. The legislation was named after the late South Carolina Republican senator who died in July. It had passed both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support and was signed into law by Trump himself. As reported by CNN, The Guardian, DW, and Anadolu Agency, the new law would have imposed tariffs of up to 100%. These duties targeted goods imported into the United States from the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or natural gas. The statute also added severe penalties targeting Russian officials, banks, and the shadow fleet of tankers.

Instead of enforcing the statute, Trump informed Congress that the pause on the legislation was in the national interest. In the executive order, Trump stated that he had submitted a certification to Congress. It declared that the issuance of the waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States. The waiver remains in effect until the Trump administration determines that further action is appropriate. This maneuver follows a familiar historical pattern. It closely mirrors the enactment of CAATSA in 2017. There, an executive signs a statutory framework he deems flawed while relying on built-in waiver provisions to hollow out its actual leverage. Today's action proves that statutory sanctions remain completely subordinate to presidential calculations regarding domestic fuel prices.

A diesel deal struck in secret while Ukrainian defenses are starved on the frontline

The administration's defense of the waiver relies on the fiction of national security, but the arithmetic is transparently electoral. One week prior to the executive order, Trump struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The agreement allowed Russian diesel exports to enter the global market. According to reporting from The Guardian, the diesel agreement specifies an immediate supply of over 300,000 metric tons. The volume reaches 3 million tons within a short period of time. Republicans had urged the president to lower retail costs ahead of the November midterm elections. They feared that energy price spikes compounded by the wars in Iran and Ukraine would damage their majorities at the ballot box.

While the Kremlin secures relief from sweeping American economic penalties, the cost is being paid in blood by our Ukrainian partners. As detailed by CNN and The Guardian, the White House pressured Kyiv to halt strikes on Russian oil facilities. It sought to ease oil prices ahead of the midterms. Simultaneously, Ukrainian authorities have reported severe restrictions on the military-grade version of Elon Musk’s Starlink. The move disrupted drone missions, early-warning systems, and frontline logistics. Kyiv has run out of missiles for the US-made Patriot air defense system. Furthermore, the administration is suspected of withholding intelligence regarding incoming Russian ballistic missile strikes. Senator Richard Blumenthal stated correctly that these waivers have nothing to do with national security and everything to do with sucking up to Vladimir Putin. Representative Don Beyer observed that Trump's latest surrender to Putin again betrays our Ukrainian partners and defies clear congressional intent. Meanwhile, in a Newsmax interview on Thursday, Trump remarked that he finds Volodymyr Zelensky to be more difficult to deal with than Putin. He previously told reporters it was time for Ukraine to get a new president.

The predictable collapse of coalition spine when political comfort trumps deterrence

The strongest opposing case comes from congressional defenders of the administration. Candidates like Darline Graham, running to replace her late brother in the Senate, made this case during a debate in Columbia. She argued that the act gives the president economic tools to end the war if he so chooses. In her view, utilizing them to bring down gas prices is a legitimate path to peace. This argument collapses upon inspection of the enforcement record. Deterrence is a wasting asset, and a promise made to an ally is a debt. The administration traded away the 100% tariffs on the top five importers of Russian crude, such as India, in exchange for Kremlin diesel shipments. By doing so, it signaled to Beijing and Havana that American resolve evaporates the moment retail gasoline ticks upward.

The mechanism here is identical to the selective enforcement seen during the price cap on Russian oil from 2022 to 2024. Federal regulators at FinCEN quietly pursue technical rulemakings against shadow financial networks like the A7 Network under section 9714 of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act. Yet the macro architecture of enforcement has been gutted from the top. Senator Elizabeth Warren termed the waiver an abject and predictable failure in leadership. She noted that Trump is thumbing his nose at Congress and enabling Putin to continue his war of aggression. When an American president chooses short-term comfort over strategic cost, the bill always arrives later with interest. That bill is paid by soldiers in the trenches of Donetsk and freedom fighters waiting for an embassy in a free Havana.

President Trump will utilize his broad discretionary powers to selectively lift secondary enforcement on major energy buyers while ignoring legislative challenges. This proves that bipartisan statutes passed by Congress remain completely subordinate to executive expediency ahead of elections.

Trump guts the Lindsey Graham Act to appease Vladimir Putin

The executive waiver that nullified a bipartisan statute to appease the Kremlin

A diesel deal struck in secret while Ukrainian defenses are starved on the frontline

The predictable collapse of coalition spine when political comfort trumps deterrence

Sources