Trump Waives New Russia Sanctions as Ukraine Support Falters

The Law Died Before It Could Be Born

Donald Trump signed a bill into law in September that was designed to punish Russia for its war on Ukraine. By Friday night, he had used his executive authority to block much of it. The Graham-Rogers Act — named for the late Senator Lindsey Graham — was meant to take effect on Sunday. Instead, it became another casualty of a presidency that is quietly rewriting American foreign policy.

The timing is not accidental. The sanctions were scheduled to trigger on October 18, just weeks before the midterm elections. Trump’s waiver arrived days after reports emerged that the United States might import Russian diesel fuel to lower domestic energy prices. The message was clear: Washington is no longer willing to pay the full price of confronting Moscow.

What Trump Actually Blocked

The legislation was one of the most ambitious sanctions regimes against Russia in modern history. It authorized tariffs of up to 100 percent on the top five purchasers of Russian oil and gas — primarily China and India. It targeted Vladimir Putin personally, along with senior officials, banks, financial institutions, and what U.S. officials call Russia’s “shadow fleet” of aging tankers used to bypass existing restrictions.

Trump’s executive order did not repeal the law. It sidestepped it. By declaring that enforcing certain provisions would not serve U.S. national interests, he effectively froze the sanctions before they could hit their targets. The distinction matters. Congress still technically passed the bill. But the consequences it envisioned will not materialize without a new directive from the White House.

This is not the first time Trump has used executive waivers to dilute sanctions regimes. He has done so for Iran and Venezuela. What makes this case different is the scale of the law and the speed of the reversal. Congress spent months crafting legislation specifically designed to close loopholes that Trump had previously exploited. He has now undone most of it in a single afternoon.

The Ukraine Connection

The waiver arrives at a moment when American support for Ukraine is faltering. Congressional appropriations have stalled. Military aid packages remain unfinished. Ukrainian forces are losing ground in the Donbas. Trump’s distance from Kyiv has become increasingly explicit.

There is a logical through-line between the sanctions rollback and the Ukraine posture. If Washington is serious about punishing Russia, it imposes economic costs. If it is preparing to negotiate a settlement — or, worse, abandon Kyiv — it removes those costs. The Graham-Rogers Act was a punishment regime. Its neutralization signals that punishment is no longer the priority.

This interpretation does not require conspiracy. It simply reads the available facts together. Trump has repeatedly called the war in Ukraine a conflict that should have been avoidable. He has threatened to end it within 24 hours if re-elected. He has shown little interest in the territorial integrity of a country that relies on American weapons to survive. The sanctions waiver is consistent with that trajectory.

The Energy Play

The most controversial detail in the reporting was Trump’s suggestion that the United States should import Russian diesel. The idea was reportedly floated as a way to depress fuel prices before the November midterms. It triggered bipartisan outrage. Lawmakers from both parties saw it as a direct contradiction of everything American energy and national security policy had stood for since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Importing Russian fuel would normalize trade with a country the United States has spent two years trying to economically isolate. It would also undermine the very sanctions the Graham-Rogers Act was designed to enforce. If Washington is buying Russian diesel, the 100 percent tariffs on Chinese and Indian buyers become impossible to justify. The logic of the law collapses.

Energy prices are a midterm election issue. Trump understands that better than anyone. The question is whether short-term political calculation should dictate long-term strategic posture. The waiver suggests the answer is yes.

The Backlash That Was Foreseen

Twenty members of Congress sent a letter on Thursday urging Trump to respect the law. They warned that the sanctions were essential to pressuring Russia and protecting American allies. Their objection was bipartisan. It was also unlikely to matter.

Trump does not need congressional permission to waive sanctions. He has done it repeatedly, and he will do it again. The Graham-Rogers Act contained its own waiver provisions. Congress gave the president broad discretion to block enforcement if he deemed it in the national interest. Trump simply exercised that discretion.

This does not mean the law is meaningless. It means the law was always a compromise. Its strongest provisions required executive enforcement. Without that enforcement, they exist only on paper. The real question is whether Congress will learn from this episode and write legislation that restricts the president’s ability to waive sanctions in the future — or whether it will simply write new laws that Trump will waive in the same way.

What Comes Next

The implications extend beyond Russia. If the United States is willing to neutralize its own sanctions regime against Moscow, what happens to the broader architecture of economic statecraft? Allies will notice. China will notice. Kyiv will notice most of all.

Ukraine is watching Washington hedge and retreat. Every waiver, every delayed shipment, every ambiguous statement from the Trump administration is interpreted in Kyiv as a sign that America is preparing to leave. The sanctions rollback reinforces that reading. It suggests that the United States is no longer treating the war as an existential confrontation with authoritarian aggression but as a manageable conflict that can be paused, negotiated, or abandoned.

That shift will define the next phase of the war. Russia will feel it. Putin now knows that the economic pressure his invasion was supposed to trigger may never materialize. That knowledge emboldens him. It also complicates the position of European allies, who are left to fill a vacuum that Washington is actively creating.

The midterms are three months away. Trump’s domestic agenda — tax cuts, immigration, energy production — will dominate the political calendar. Foreign policy is already being treated as secondary. The Graham-Rogers waiver is a preview of what that looks like in practice: legislation passed by Congress, then quietly undone by executive order before it can affect the behavior of America’s adversaries.

For Ukraine, the timing is devastating. For Russia, it is a victory. For American institutions, it is another reminder that the checks and balances system works only when both branches take it seriously.