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Trump Accused of Trashing His Loyal Pal’s Legacy

The president’s Russian diesel deal goes against the work of Lindsey Graham, a Senate colleague says.

President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to take diesel fuel from Russia is “tarnishing” deceased Senator Lindsey Graham’s legacy, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has claimed.

“The president needs to move forward with the sanctions bill we sent him,” the retiring North Carolina senator said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.

“This agreement with purchasing Russian oil is essentially, I think, tarnishing Lindsey Graham’s efforts to try and get the sanctions bill through,” Tillis continued, describing Trump as “wide open to Russian energy.”

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Trump agreed to allow imports of hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel on Friday, just weeks after signing a sanctions law in Graham’s honor.

Graham, a loyal Trump booster until his surprise death in July, was an advocate for Ukraine in Vladimir Putin’s war on the country. He helped craft the sanctions bill targeting Russia, which the Senate passed in August and posthumously named the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026.

The news of the sanctions exception came after Trump, 80, and Putin, 74, had a long phone call that one Russian aide characterized as “friendly.”

“The presidents’ conversation, which was quite intense and, I would say, friendly, lasted an hour and a half. Neither wanted to hang up first,” Yuri Ushakov said, describing a popular trope in romance films and teen soaps.

Trump touted the purchasing agreement on Truth Social as a win for the United States, but Russia did not give up anything to get the deal, and Putin instead told Trump that peace talks would not continue until Ukraine ceased drone strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.

On Sunday morning, that gambit appeared to have paid off, with Trump announcing on Truth Social that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an “energy ceasefire.”

“Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” he wrote.

There was no immediate confirmation from either Russia or Ukraine, or details of what Trump’s announcement meant.

The diesel deal is an attempt by Trump to push down record-high prices ahead of the midterms.

Announcing the deal on Friday, he said: “Between our TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz, and this great announcement on Russian Energy, Diesel Prices for Americans and, indeed, the World, will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST! Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority. This is a very big and important announcement.”

Poll after poll has the Republican party losing both the House and the Senate because of frustrations with the war on Iran, the subsequent rising cost of living and record-high gas prices.

Trump, who has always spoken highly of Putin, has a fraught relationship with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he called on to resign Saturday.

Zelensky was close with Senator Graham, and attended his memorial service in D.C. On Sunday he said he supported the ceasefire, although he didn’t have details on it yet.

Graham was temporarily replaced in the Senate by his sister, Darlene Graham, 62, who ultimately won Trump’s backing and the primary to contest the South Carolina Senate seat in November.

She is neck and neck with her Democrat opponent, Annie Andrews, holding a single point lead in what is a usually safe seat for the Republican party.

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