Donald Trump took to Truth Social to announce that, after a phone call with Vladimir Putin (no word on whether this one was also a “perfect” phone call), Russia would release 300,000 tons of diesel immediately and millions more over the coming months. To make that possible, the Treasury Department temporarily waived sanctions on Russian diesel, handing Putin a fresh injection of cash to fund his war on Ukraine. Lawmakers in both parties say the deal violates a 2022 law banning Russian energy imports, as Time reports:
Congress four years ago passed the Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act, which prohibits U.S. imports of Russian-origin energy products covered by Chapter 27 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, including diesel. Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, the bill’s chief sponsor, argued Monday that Trump is “directly violating that law” by “lifting sanctions to permit the first Russian diesel imports into the United States since the law took effect, without satisfying the specific legal conditions it requires.” He suggested the lack of congressional oversight on Trump’s deal with Putin renders it unlawful, and noted how the plan showcases a sharp turn from Washington, as it comes just weeks after Trump signed a sweeping Russia sanctions bill intended to target the country’s financial institutions and the energy industry, which has largely financed the assault on Ukraine. The sanctions bill was named after Lindsey Graham, the late Republican Senator who spent the final year of his life building support for the measure. ...
In a letter sent to Trump on Tuesday, [Republican Sens. Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski] were joined by fellow Republican Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, John Cornyn of Texas, and Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma alongside six Democratic Senators as they told the President the deal “is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies [and] should be rescinded.” The letter came a day after Trump publicly dismissed the criticism stemming from within his own party. “Well, I think these are Republicans that can’t really be serious,” he told reporters at the White House. “Anything that could help our farmers, our ranchers, I like.”
Trump knows that soaring diesel prices, and their knock-on effect on the cost of nearly everything else, are hurting his popularity and his party’s chances of holding Congress in the midterms. He is already touting the deal as relief for Americans struggling at the pump, even though experts say it will do little to bring prices down. The reasoning behind the deal may be more troubling still. One report reveals Trump made his decision only after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to stop striking Russian oil refineries. Trump then blamed Zelenskyy for U.S. diesel prices and declared that “it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” a view the Kremlin has been pressing for years. The farmers and ranchers Trump claims to be helping can expect little relief. Putin, meanwhile, gets a new revenue stream and an American president who has taken up his line on Ukraine’s leadership.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
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