WASHINGTON — One day before some of the toughest Russia sanctions Congress has ever passed were supposed to take effect, President Donald Trump put them on ice.
In an executive order issued on Friday evening, October 16, Trump waived the application of sanctions, restrictions and duties under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 — the sweeping bipartisan law that would have let Washington impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries that keep buying Russian oil and gas.
“I am hereby waiving the application of such sanctions, restrictions, and duties provided for in the Graham Act,” Trump wrote 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 interest of the United States.”
The law that almost bit
The Graham Act, named after the late South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham — a staunch supporter of Ukraine who died in July — was signed by Trump in mid-September after passing both the Senate and the House with large bipartisan majorities. It was billed as one of the most significant Ukraine-related sanctions packages to move through Congress since Trump returned to the White House.
Its teeth were in Sections 112 and 113: duties of up to 100 percent on goods from the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or natural gas — a list headed by India and China — on any country that knowingly made new Russian energy purchases on or after October 18. The same 100 percent hit was aimed at the top five facilitators of Russian oil sanctions evasion, and duties on Russian goods themselves were to rise by 500 percent. The law also carried sanctions against foreign persons and entities doing business with Moscow’s energy sector.
A strange piece of paperwork
The executive order is an unusual document. It first puts the Graham Act’s tariff machinery into effect — and then, in Section 4, immediately suspends it: “I hereby waive the application of any duties provided for in sections 112 and 113 of the Graham Act or this order.” It also waives most of the law’s sanctions on foreign persons, covering sections 102(a), 102(d), 102(e), 103 to 111 and 117. Sanctions imposed under earlier executive orders are left untouched.
The pause is not permanent. The order says the waivers stay in effect only until the president — or the secretaries of State and Treasury, with the trade representative — decide further action is appropriate. The White House has offered no detailed public explanation of how the waiver serves the national interest.
Why now
The timing is hard to miss. Just days earlier, Trump announced a deal under which Russia would supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel to “the American and global marketplace,” followed by 500,000 tonnes in November and a million tonnes after that. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the arrangement a gift that would fund Russia’s war. Trump, meanwhile, has publicly soured on Zelenskyy — even suggesting Ukraine needs “a new leader.”
The waiver also lands as Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads to India. Washington has repeatedly pressed New Delhi to cut its Russian energy purchases; India, which imports the overwhelming bulk of its crude, has refused, saying it must protect the energy security of its 1.4 billion people through diversified sourcing. China, the other giant buyer of Russian crude, gets the same reprieve.
The move has already drawn fire at home. On October 15, a bipartisan group of 22 House lawmakers wrote to Trump, Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging them to enforce the Graham Act and kill the diesel deal, warning that “as Russia prepares to wage a fifth winter campaign against Ukraine, the United States has an opportunity to reinvigorate peace efforts by placing maximum pressure on Vladimir Putin and the governments and networks that finance his war.”
Why this matters
For India and China, the waiver lifts an immediate threat that would have scrambled global energy flows and handed Washington a tariff weapon over two of the world’s biggest economies. For Moscow, it is breathing room: a law designed to choke the revenue funding its war in Ukraine is now sitting on a shelf. And for the diplomacy of the war itself, it is the clearest signal yet of how far Trump’s Russia posture has traveled — from signing Congress’s toughest sanctions package in September, to buying Russian diesel in October, to shelving the sanctions entirely. Whether the pause is a tactical delay or a quiet burial will decide whether the Graham Act ever bites at all.
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