The News
President Donald Trump is pushing ahead with his deal to import Russian diesel, blowing past his party’s growing complaints about taking help from Vladimir Putin.
“The president’s main priority and commitment is to the American people and to help lower costs for the American people, and he’s doing that,” a White House official said after days of withering complaints by Republicans. “The president has not shifted his stance on it.”
The Trump administration caused an intraparty furor earlier this month by announcing that the US will import roughly 2.2 million tons of Russian diesel in an effort to ease fuel price spikes that have hurt Republican candidates on the midterm campaign trail.
It’s unclear exactly when the imports will officially arrive, but the economic boost from Moscow is sparking discontent as Republicans in tight races scramble to message around the surprise announcement.
Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, who is running for the Senate, said on Tuesday in a debate that she vastly preferred other options to bring down fuel prices — among them, suspending the gas tax, creating a diesel rebate program, and using more biofuels.
“We need to lower diesel prices, but I don’t think we need to be making a deal with Russia to do it,” Hinson said.
The Russia deal completes a trio of Trump economic moves that are politically toxic to swing-state Republicans, joining his bid to encourage beef imports and his Canadian trade war. All three are unpopular enough among members of Trump’s own party to create significant discord about the GOP plan to tackle rising prices.
Republicans are signing onto letters bashing the Russia diesel agreement and distancing themselves on the campaign trail: Former New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu, seeking the Senate again, said this week that the move would do little to lower prices in the US and “provides an advantage to Russia” In Michigan, former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers similarly broke with Trump.
But other Republicans defended Trump’s policy change.
“The president’s got energy security and economic security front of mind right now. He’s focused on Americans first,” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., a top Trump ally, said this week.
Hagerty dismissed the prospect that US diesel purchases would unfairly aid Russia in its war against Ukraine: “We’ve got a number of sanctions in place and a number of efforts to bring Putin into alignment.”
For the White House, the argument is simple: Diesel prices are too high, and even a smaller-scale import plan helps ease the burden.
Others in the administration privately acknowledge, however, that there’s a clear reason for the recent rise in prices: Trump’s ongoing war with Iran. His administration also has long entertained ways to unwind certain sanctions on Russia in a bid to secure a peace deal with Ukraine — one that would also help ease inflation.
“Having to do this is yet another inevitable consequence of the Iran war,” said a second Trump administration official, who added a hope that the diesel deal becomes part of “a broader diplomatic strategy.”
Know More
Already, two bipartisan groups of senators have pushed back on the decision, including seven Republicans. One House Republican has said he’ll introduce legislation to block it.
“Trump and his team have misread the room on the Republican caucuses in the House and the Senate on this issue,” Bloomberg economist Chris Kennedy told Semafor. “They’re trying to respond to concerns from congressional Republicans in farm states about diesel prices … and it doesn’t seem to be landing very well.”
Fueling that discontent is Republicans’ dimming faith that Trump will choose to impose recently enacted Russian sanctions that were passed in honor of his longtime ally, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said earlier this month that the administration planned to “name names” — but whether to use that sanctions power would be “for the president to decide.”
Asked this week about GOP skeptics of his diesel purchases from Russia, Trump dismissed them as “Republicans that can’t really be serious,” adding that it’s “a deal for the rest of the world.” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers praised Trump’s “great deal to supply the global market with massive amounts of diesel.”
“Lowering prices for America’s great farmers, truckers, and families remains a top priority as the President simultaneously urges both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to stop strikes against refineries, which are driving up costs and hurting American consumers,” Rogers said in a statement.
“We didn’t think [the bill] would change anything on the sanctions front … and I think that this decision just reinforces that view,” said Kennedy, who served on the National Security Council during the Trump and Biden administrations.
Room for Disagreement
A handful of GOP lawmakers, including Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker of Mississippi, are taking a different tack by predicting the diesel imports never materialize.Some Republicans posit that Trump’s new import deal violates a 2022 law that bans the US from purchasing Russian energy products. Others point to hurdles like European sanctions and Russian shortages.
Even if it does become real, it won’t do much to lower prices. Investors are already pricing in “little near-term impact,” Kennedy said, since the world uses far more diesel than Russia will export.
Wicker said he’s pitched the administration on alternative ideas. It’s unclear what those could be.
Shelby, Eleanor, and Burgess’ View
Whether it’s red-dye diesel or Russian diesel, the Trump administration is pulling out all the stops to convince voters that it’s bringing prices down … even as it maintains an Iran war that is driving costs up.
So far, the president’s advisers have little to show for it beyond making life harder for the rest of their party.
Notable
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Piers Morgan it’s “painful” to watch Trump’s deal-making with Russia.