President Donald Trump smiles during an event in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., September 2, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
President Donald Trump's latest pro-Russia betrayal has left several Republicans fed up, per a report from The Hill, with lawmakers calling the move "unconscionable" and "beyond irresponsible," and suggesting that one of Trump's late allies would be "appalled" by it.
In his latest move supporting Russia and Vladimir Putin, Trump on Friday signed an executive order that would exempt Russia from sanctions imposed by a recent "legislative package," which were meant to increase the economic pressure on the country and push it to end the war in Ukraine. In response, several Republican lawmakers broke with the president and attacked the decision to let Russia off the hook as baffling and morally indefensible.
“I am hereby waiving the application of such sanctions, restrictions, and duties provided for in the Graham Act,” Trump said in the order. “I have submitted to the Congress a certification that the issuance of such a waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States.”
The bill, which Trump signed into law last month, was meant to impose tariffs on the top five nations importing energy from Russia, as well as any other nations helping Russia avoid economic sanctions, and passed in the Senate with considerable bipartisan support. The bill was named in honor of Sen. Lindsey Graham shortly after his death, as he had been one of its major backers and announced breakthrough support for it from the White House just before he passed away suddenly in July.
"What part of enforcing a law passed 86-11 by the Senate does the President and his advisors not understand?" North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a noted critic of Trump, posted on his official X account. "It’s unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every single day."
Another Trump nemesis in the Senate, GOP Texas Sen. John Cornyn, added in his own social media post Saturday that "Lindsey [Graham] would be appalled."
"The President is prolonging the war, not ending it," Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon posted in response to the executive order news on Friday.
Trump's decision got surprising support, however, from Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who has frequently attacked many of the president's other moves and lost his reelection primary this year to a Trump-backed challenger. Massie was notably one of the few Republicans who voted against the bill in the first place
"Glad to see Trump has used the executive authority granted to him by Congress to waive almost all of the provisions of this stupid law that pertain to Russia," Massie wrote in a post to social media.
Massie also notably spoke in support of Trump's recent deal to import diesel fuel from Russia.