Well, bless their hearts. Diesel’s sitting near record highs, the truck that brings your groceries and the furnace that heats your house both run on the stuff, and President Trump goes out and cuts a deal to get more fuel flowing into the world market. You’d think the man handed out free gasoline on the White House lawn. Instead we get a bipartisan swoon on the Sunday shows, seven senators clutching their pearls, and Thom Tillis telling “Meet the Press” there’s “a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law.”
I have questions for the manager. Where was this energy when diesel hit the prices we’re all paying now? Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Jeanne Shaheen, the whole church choir of the Senate issued a joint statement Sunday telling Trump to “reverse course” because, they say, he didn’t consult Congress. Honey, Congress can’t consult itself out of a paper bag. The man found fuel three weeks before an election, and the professional hand-wringers are upset he didn’t file the paperwork first.
Now let’s be honest about what’s really going on, because you can see it with your own eyes. Trump’s poll numbers are down, the midterms are November 3, and every Republican with a tough race suddenly remembers he’s an “independent voice.” Tillis is retiring in January, which in Washington means he’s finally free to say whatever he wants, since nobody back home can vote on him anymore. That’s not courage, that’s a farewell tour.
And yes, I hear the critics. Mike Pence called it a “betrayal” of the late Lindsey Graham’s legacy, since Trump signed the Graham sanctions bill into law just three weeks ago and now he’s lifting part of it. That’s a fair point and I won’t pretend it isn’t. Trump himself spent 2025 hollering at NATO allies for buying Russian oil, saying they were “funding the war against themselves. Who the hell ever heard of that one?” Well, sir, we’ve heard of it now, haven’t we. A fella at the Cato Institute put it plainly: Congress just gave Trump the power to tariff big buyers of Russian oil, so “Can America tariff America?” That’s a question that answers itself.
But here’s my common-sense read. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the administration has the legal authority, and John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, had the only response Sunday that sounded like it came from somebody who’s actually paid a fuel bill: “The president is balancing and has to make tough decisions.” Zelenskyy is upset, the Canadians are upset, and I understand that too. War is ugly and Putin is no friend of mine or yours. But the analysts themselves admit this deal probably won’t even lower prices for long. Which means the whole fight is over a short-term Band Aid, and the Senate wants to rip it off out of principle while folks fill their heating oil tanks this winter.
Ukraine says easing sanctions “plays into Russia’s hands,” and I take that seriously. But so does watching your grocery bill climb because everything in America rides on a truck. Trump claims there’s an “energy ceasefire” coming out of this. Zelenskyy says he’s still waiting on the details, and Moscow hasn’t said a word. That part I’d hold loosely, because a deal isn’t a deal till the other fella signs it, and Putin’s signature has never been worth the ink.
So here’s where I land. You can be for squeezing Putin or you can be for cheap diesel, and this month Washington is trying to be for both while telling you it’s your fault for noticing. The Senate’s sudden outbreak of conscience would carry more weight if it had shown up before the election, not three weeks before it. Tillis found his spine on his way out the door. That’s not a profile in courage, that’s a luggage tag.