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Congress Gave Trump a Sanctions Hammer Three Weeks Ago. He Lifted Sanctions on Russian Diesel Instead.

Friday, October 9, 2026
📊 36 tweets analyzed · 23 members · 470K impressions · 40K engagement · posts from October 9
🤖 AI-Generated by Anthropic Claude

The Issue

President Trump said Friday that after a call with Vladimir Putin, Russia would immediately release hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel onto the world market, and the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, issued General License 135, which permits the sale, delivery and importation of Russian diesel, including into the United States, through April 7, 2027. Diesel averaged $6.27 a gallon on Friday, $2.60 above a year ago. The move cuts against a law Trump signed three weeks ago. The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, signed September 18, orders the president to raise tariffs on all goods from Russia, up to 500 percent, within 30 days, a deadline that falls on October 18, and to put tariffs of up to 100 percent on the five countries that buy the most Russian oil and gas. The president can skip those measures only by certifying to Congress that skipping them serves the national interest. Friday's license is a different instrument: OFAC suspended the 2022 ban on importing Russian oil and fuel, so Russian diesel can now land at American ports. No tariff and no waiver has been announced, so the law and the license point in opposite directions. Either Russian diesel gets taxed when it arrives, which defeats the purpose of buying it, or Trump signs a waiver and tells Congress why. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X, as Politico reported, that the deal "plays into Russia's hands," and accused Trump of using peace talks in Florida as a smokescreen.

Nineteen Democrats made the same two-part argument: the war with Iran sent diesel prices up, and the fix pays the man whose forces, in their telling, are helping Iran target American troops. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called it a deal with the devil. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said it runs against the intent of the sanctions law and insults the memory of the senator it is named for, who died in July. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) said this is why he voted against that law, and Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) called trusting Trump with its tariff powers a mistake. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) pushed the No Oil Profits for Enemies Act, which he and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced in April with three senators from each party. It would give Congress 30 days to review any easing of Russia sanctions, including energy licenses like Friday's. Three Republicans spoke. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) posted all day that buying Russian fuel is the wrong answer to diesel prices and told Politico the president has "a moral blindness towards Putin." Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) said he is concerned the move will fund the Kremlin's war machine. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) cheered a massive oil deal.

Verifiable Claims:

  • Through the Graham act, Congress gave the president significant authorities and leverage against China and Russia to end Putin's war with a negotiated settlement - stated by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX)
  • Congress gave Trump expanded tariff powers in the hope he would use them to help Ukraine, and he is instead lifting sanctions on Russian fossil fuels - stated by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA)
  • Himes voted against the Russia sanctions bill because he believed Trump would never sanction Russia - stated by Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT)
  • The bipartisan NOPE Act would stop the president from easing Russia sanctions on his own - stated by Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
  • The Russian diesel in question is less than two hours of global demand and will not lower pump prices - shared by Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE)
  • Rather than use the sanctions Congress authorized against Putin, the administration sanctioned the International Criminal Court, which seeks Putin's arrest over the abduction of Ukrainian children - stated by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)

Opinions & Characterizations:

TL;DR - The Partisan Split:

Every Democrat who posted told one story, that the Iran war raised diesel prices and Trump is now paying Putin to lower them, and half of them added that Congress had just handed him sanctions to use the other way. Three Republicans broke silence. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) was the harshest critic in either party, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) said the move will fund the Kremlin, and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) was the only member to applaud. The institutional fight is over the NOPE Act, a bipartisan bill from April that would give Congress 30 days to review any easing of Russia sanctions, which Friday's license would have triggered. Neither the Republican leadership nor that bill's four Republican cosponsors, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), posted a word about the license. Bacon's retweet of a Latvian lawmaker summed up the skeptics' case, that the diesel is less than two hours of world demand and will not move the pump price.

From official and campaign congressional X accounts, October 9, 2026. Continuing coverage: September 16 (the House sends the Graham act to Trump), July 12 (Graham's death), October 4 (both parties run on prices). Sources for the announcement and the law: Treasury General License 135, the enrolled text of H.R. 5334, NBC News, Politico.

Disclosure: this digest was drafted with Claude, made by Anthropic, and reviewed by a human editor.