Three stalwart Republicans now on the outs with President Donald Trump expressed their shock and dismay after the president waived congressionally approved sanctions against Russia on Friday, accelerating a lurch toward Moscow as it continues its four-year-long war against Ukraine.
Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act in September, giving the White House 30 days to implement or waive massive new tariffs on Russian energy — and on the countries that trade with Russia. Things changed last week, when Trump himself announced a deal with Russia to supply hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel fuel “to the American and Global Marketplace,” temporarily lifting sanctions on Russian diesel.
Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, along with Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, expressed alarm over the move, which comes as Trump faces mounting pressure to bring down energy prices ahead of the midterm elections.
“The President is prolonging the war, not ending it,” Bacon wrote on X Friday, shortly after Trump’s executive order was made public. Trump had promised to end the war within the first days of his second administration.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement that “enforcing the sanctions provisions now would impede ongoing U.S. efforts to negotiate a durable and comprehensive peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia. The President retains the ability to exercise these authorities at any time if he determines that doing so would advance national interests.”
Bacon piled on Saturday, writing on X that Trump's agenda "is dead. Many of us won’t fund these things knowing he is propping up a dictator’s invasion and throwing an ally under the bus."
Critics have balked at the circumstances of the announcement. The president, who signed a sanctions act boosted by Graham, a longtime political ally, has now effectively sidelined that legislation as his own trade deal with Russia might have violated its core intentions.
“Lindsey would be appalled,” Cornyn wrote early Saturday.
Earlier this week, Tillis and Cornyn, along with 10 other senators including fellow Republicans Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, signed a letter urging Trump to abandon his Russian diesel deal, calling it “a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies.”
The administration has defended the move as a way to ease energy prices, which have surged amid the ongoing war with Iran and disruptions to oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Those rising costs have become a political liability ahead of the midterms in less than three weeks. But the decision has left some of the party’s longtime Russia hawks at odds with the president.
“What part of enforcing a law passed 86-11 by the Senate does the President and his advisors not understand?” Tillis wrote on X Saturday. “It’s unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every single day. If the President wants to actually bring down energy prices, he can do it by solving the Iran problem, not by doing a solid for Vladimir Putin.”
Tillis, Cornyn and Bacon all will not be in Congress next year. Cornyn was defeated in a hard-fought primary for the Texas Senate seat by Trump-backed Ken Paxton. Tillis and Bacon both decided not to seek reelection shortly after Trump returned to the White House.
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