Washington: US President Donald Trump dismissed Republican senators opposed to his Russian diesel deal as not “serious” and floated a possible US “cap on diesel”, even as a law he signed last month could put tariffs on countries buying Russian oil from October 18.
Speaking to reporters at the White House before leaving for a campaign trip to Youngstown, Ohio, Trump defended the arrangement with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I think these are Republicans that can’t really be serious,” Trump told reporters before boarding Marine One. “We have — you know, we make a lot of oil. We could do a restriction on oil, but the rest of the world would be greatly, greatly affected if we do that.”
“We could do a restriction, you know, a cap on diesel, keep it all for ourselves. That would have a very big impact,” he said.
“And it’s not really a deal with me; it’s a deal for the rest of the world. So, anything that could help our farmers or ranchers, I like,” Trump added.
He did not say how a cap would work, whether it would cover exports or domestic supply, or how it would square with US purchases of Russian diesel.
The Republican critics include Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Curtis of Utah. They joined Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Ron Wyden and Richard Blumenthal in a joint statement on Sunday urging the administration to “immediately reverse course”.
Murkowski has pointed to the sanctions law Trump signed three weeks ago. “The President should be using those authorities instead of allowing Russia to export diesel, rake in revenues, and continue its catastrophic war in Ukraine,” she said.
“I was a co-sponsor of the Russian sanctions law, which the President recently signed, but is now not following,” Collins said.
The law, Public Law 119-111, named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham, allows the President to impose duties of up to 100 per cent ad valorem on goods from countries that buy Russian-origin crude oil and related energy products. It also lets him waive them in the US national interest.
The first duties can take effect from October 18. The administration has not said publicly whether India will be on the list.
India has been among the largest buyers of Russian crude since 2022. Trump imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods in August 2025 over those purchases.
New Delhi has long argued it is held to a different standard. “Where the United States is concerned, it continues to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, fertilisers as well as chemicals,” the External Affairs Ministry said in August.
Trump announced last week that Russia would supply about 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately, with nearly five million tonnes in total, as his administration seeks to bring down fuel prices that have risen since the Iran war began in February.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 135 on Friday, authorising transactions involving Russian-origin diesel.
Congress banned imports of Russian energy into the US in 2022 after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
(IANS)
