Trump Shields Russia From New Sanctions Passed by Congress in Lindsey Graham’s Name

(Jae C. Hong/AP photo)

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday night waiving a slew of new Russia-related sanctions approved by Congress, just a week after announcing a diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to help bring down U.S. fuel prices.

The move effectively guts key provisions of legislation Trump himself signed into law in September, which sought to ramp up economic pressure on Moscow over its ongoing war in Ukraine.

According to Friday reporting from The New York Times and Reuters, the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 was designed to penalize Russian officials, wealthy elites, and financial institutions while targeting countries that continue purchasing Russian energy.

The legislation, named after the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died in July after championing the measure, authorized tariffs of up to 100% on imports from major buyers of Russian oil and gas.

“I have submitted to the Congress a certification that the issuance of such a waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States,” Trump wrote, though, in his executive order.

The decision comes as Trump has increasingly embraced Putin while publicly attacking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

As mentioned, the president revealed just last week that Putin had agreed to help rescue the American diesel market amid soaring fuel prices driven by the war in Iran.

Trump subsequently claimed that Russia and Ukraine had reached an “energy ceasefire,” which Zelensky said caught him by surprise. Russian forces struck a Ukrainian power plant just hours afterward.

During a Thursday interview with Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty, Trump declared that Zelensky was “not a good guy for us to deal with,” adding, “I find Zelensky to be more difficult to deal with than Putin.”

Meanwhile, during a Wednesday interview with Piers Morgan, Zelensky responded in the affirmative when asked if he feels “betrayed” by Trump’s deal with Putin, adding that doing business with the Russian president is the “not right side of history.”

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has dragged on since February 2022.

The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
The single summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting from both sides of the aisle. Subscribe now!