New York
President Donald Trump loves tariffs so much that during his first term, he nicknamed himself “Tariff Man.”
Trump tripled down on tariffs during his second term, lobbing them on friends and enemies alike, in an attempt to revive American manufacturing, crack down on illegal drugs and even to protest an alleged “witch hunt” against an ally in Brazil.
After spiking tariffs last year to the highest level since the Great Depression, Trump posted photos of himself headlined “Mister Tariff” and “The Tariff King.”
But when it came to keeping sky-high tariffs on Russia, Tariff Man balked.
On Friday, Trump ignited bipartisan uproar when he signed an executive order that waived new sanctions and tariffs on Russia two days before they would go into effect. Those penalties were contained in a bill Trump signed into law in September that was named after Lindsey Graham, the late Republican senator from South Carolina.
The executive order suspends tariffs of up to 500% on US imports from Russia and 100% on the top five importers of Russian oil and natural gas.
In other words, Congress built a new economic weapon to use against Russia’s war machine, but Trump has decided not to fire it — at least for now.
“This eviscerates any real enforcement of the Lindsey Graham sanctions act,” said Ed Mills, Washington policy analyst at financial firm Raymond James.
Mills noted that the move falls within a “pattern” for Trump, who similarly left Russia off the list of countries facing sweeping tariffs in April 2025.
“The timing of the announcement is telling. Friday news dumps are done for the actions you don’t want noticed and politically you don’t want to defend,” Mills said. “This is certainly not the closing argument the GOP wanted weeks before the midterms.”
The tariff pause helped ease intense pressure in the energy market — but only slightly. Oil futures dipped Monday morning as traders bet that fewer sanctions on Russia will mean more energy supply.
And by early Monday afternoon, Brent crude, the world benchmark, flirted with five-month highs around $110 a barrel.
“Russia is already selling crude oil to China, India, Turkey and elsewhere while they have been limiting exports of refined fuels,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. “The waiver may make it easier to sell oil to a wider range of customers, but whether it leads to additional supplies reaching the market is another question.”
The executive order was met by praise from Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, who hailed it on X as “an important and truly historic moment.”
Multiple Republicans broke with Trump over the decision to scrap the Russia sanctions, including Sen. Darline Graham of South Carolina, who is filling her late brother’s seat and running for a full term.
“I would choose to keep the pressure on Russia to end the war and get the gas prices down because I don’t trust (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and I don’t trust Russia,” she said.
Outgoing Republican Sen. Thom Tillis blasted the move as “beyond irresponsible” and slammed Trump for “capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every single day.”
Trump officials defended the decision to waive Russia sanctions.
Over the weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters the executive order gives Trump time to “study” the global economic impact of the sanctions.
“The problem is that these sanctions were not just sanctions on Russia. They include tariffs on a number of countries — India, for example, and others,” Rubio said. “I think the president wants to take the 60-day period of time to sort of analyze what imposing both sanctions and tariffs will mean to the global economy and even to the US economy.”
The decision was a surprise to some analysts, given Trump’s embrace of tariffs.
Mills said many expected Trump might opt to only lightly enforce the Graham Act sanctions, but not to explicitly pause the tariffs altogether.
Last year, Trump spiked US tariffs on imports to the highest level since the 1930s, according to John Iselin, associate director of economic analysis at The Budget Lab at Yale University.
Although US tariffs have since eased — due to a series of pauses with China, a Supreme Court decision against Trump’s global tariffs and other developments — they are still higher than at any point between the 1940s and 2024.
