The Trump administration’s deal to let Russia supply 3 million tons of diesel to the American and global markets is illegal, dangerous and harms U.S. national interests. It undermines our allies, rewards aggression and further cements the position of the United States under Donald Trump as squarely on the side of the bad guys. For all of this, Americans won’t even get the short-term benefit of lower prices for fuel.
The deal clearly violates U.S. law. The 2022 Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act banned Russian fossil fuel imports and only allows the president to end that ban under specific conditions, which include Russia withdrawing its forces and ending hostilities. The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act, passed and signed by Trump just last month, goes even further, imposing heavy tariffs on top importers of Russian oil and gas and targeting the shadow fleet of tankers moving sanctioned Russian fuel. It was explicitly intended to starve Vladimir Putin of a critical source of funding for his war.
In a single phone call with Putin, Trump has illegally undone both efforts and made a mockery of American rule of law.
Trump defying U.S. laws is unfortunately nothing new. He has destroyed the East Wing of the White House without congressional authorization, imposed illegal tariffs, diverted military aid and withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid while dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, to name just a few. The Trump administration also has repeatedly ignored court orders that sought to obstruct its illegal acts. But we can’t let the frequency of this lawlessness lead us to normalize it. This deal is illegal, and Congress and the courts should take immediate steps to block it.
Even if it were not illegal, it is terrible policy that will help fund Russia’s war of aggression, ongoing terrorism against Ukrainian civilians and hybrid war against our NATO allies. Russia has targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure throughout the war in gross violation of international law, and recently stepped up such attacks to terrorize the population and make up for the fact that its battlefield performance is flailing. Recent attacks include a precision strike on an apartment complex in Pryluky killing at least 32 people and, just since Trump’s call with Putin, a strike on an apartment building in Kharkiv that killed four and injured dozens and an attack on a residential area in Zaporizhzhia that killed 22. Many children were among the dead.
The U.S. government had been sharing essential intelligence with Ukraine to warn of incoming attacks, but Trump threatened to withhold such information unless Ukraine stops targeting Russian refineries. This cynical threat aims to obstruct the best weapon Kyiv has now to undermine Russia’s war effort. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Trump administration may already have begun to do so. Ukraine had no warning of the latest attack on Oct. 13, which included dozens of ballistic missiles and drones. The barrage killed several people and knocked out power for 600,000.
At the same time, the satellite internet network Starshield, on which the Ukrainian military relies for operations, was restricted without warning, severely impeding their defensive and offensive actions. The system was developed by SpaceX and is owned by the Pentagon. Elon Musk and Trump traded blame for the system restrictions, which under law should not occur absent congressional notification, but neither uttered a word against Russia for its attacks.
Ukrainians are not the only ones under threat from Putin, either. Trump has rolled back sanctions on Russia — even as the rogue state actively helps Iran target and kill U.S. forces.
Even if Americans were unbothered by Russia’s illegal war and assault on Ukrainian civilians, surely we don’t want to support those who harm our own troops directly.
Despite Trump’s claims, Americans won’t benefit from lower fuel prices, either. The initial supply of 300,000 metric tons of diesel is less than a day’s supply for just the U.S. transport sector and barely a blip for the global demand that dictates the price of the commodity. The entire amount Trump claims Putin will deliver as part of this deal between now and April amounts to only a single day of the global demand.
The deal, though, will still pour billions of dollars into Putin’s war economy, if he is able to deliver. But it’s questionable if Moscow even has the export capacity to meet these numbers since Russia’s refineries have been battered by Ukrainian strikes. Moscow has had to impose diesel export restrictions through October to ensure adequate domestic supply for harvest season. Trump’s aim may be to give Putin a helping hand by attaching U.S. interests to Russian energy infrastructure in order to deter Ukraine from continuing its campaign against Russian energy supplies.
In return for Trump’s gift, Putin has only continued his assault on Ukraine and dismissed Trump’s claim of an “energy cease-fire.”
Trump is extending a financial lifeline to Putin that he may not even be able to grasp, but that doesn’t undo the damage of this sinister move. The message to Russia, Ukraine and the rest of the world is clear: America’s president stands on the side of Putin, lawlessness and cruelty and squarely against U.S. interests.
Elizabeth Shackelford is a foreign affairs columnist for the baiduhai and a distinguished lecturer with the Dickey Center at Dartmouth College. She was previously a U.S. diplomat and is the author of “The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age.”
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