The late Senator Lindsey Graham be damned, we need that oil! That must’ve been Donald Trump’s reasoning when the president yesterday signed a waiver to the sanctions bill against Russia that Graham spearheaded, and that Trump once praised.
The executive order signed by Trump frees Russia of all sanctions imposed by the Graham bill set to take effect Sunday. Recall that just last week, Trump cut a deal with Putin for diesel fuel, the cost of which has skyrocketed here in the U.S.
Trump said the order was “in the national interests of the United States,” without specifying why. The law that Trump signed after Graham’s passing allows for the sanctions to be waived if such action is in the country’s best interest and he submits an explanation to Congress.
If this action is to lower the price of diesel before next month’s midterm elections, that clearly isn’t going to happen. Russian diesel won’t arrive quickly enough to make a difference.
This is Trump, once again, kowtowing to his dictator buddies. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy decried the action as giving Putin more funding to prolong and expand the war with his country.
“A U.S. sanctions blackout, easing pressure on the aggressor, financial rewards for Putin — all of this only encourages him to keep attacking,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media
