President Donald Trump is facing sharp backlash after his administration temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil in a move meant to ease surging gas prices tied to the Iran war.
According to the Daily Mail, Trump’s Treasury Department issued a temporary waiver Thursday night allowing the purchase of Russian crude oil and petroleum products already at sea. The waiver runs through April 11.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the move is only a “short-term measure” meant to support “stability in global energy markets.” But critics immediately accused the administration of helping Vladimir Putin while Ukraine is still fighting for survival.
The backlash comes as gas prices keep climbing across the country. The Daily Mail reported that the national average has jumped by 70 cents over the last month as Trump’s war with Iran nears its third week.
Oil prices are moving the same way. The report cited CNBC, which said crude reached $100 Friday morning after rising 9%, following a 27.9% jump last week, the biggest increase since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pressure is being driven by chaos around the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and its proxies have been disrupting tanker traffic through the critical shipping lane, choking off supply and rattling global energy markets.
That has created a political problem for the White House. Trump and his team have admitted the war would push gas prices higher in the short term, but they have insisted costs would eventually settle down once the conflict ends.
For now, that is not happening. The Daily Mail reported that every signal suggesting the U.S. Navy might help escort commercial ships through the strait causes oil prices to drop, while every new sign of escalation sends prices back up.
Even a now-deleted social media post from Energy Secretary Chris Wright briefly shook the market. Wright posted that the Navy had escorted a ship through the strait, but the White House later said that was false and blamed the post on a staffer’s mistake.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday, “That’s not a Strait we’re going to allow to remain contested with a lack of flow of commercial goods.” He also said Iran is still firing at ships trying to pass through the waterway.
Critics were not impressed by the sanctions waiver. One social media user wrote, “Russia’s sanctions lifted, sounds like a betrayal to the Ukrainian cause.”
Another wrote, “What a disgrace. Trump has removed sanctions on Russia’s oil. I am truly sorry to the Ukrainian people.” One more user asked, “How many Ukrainians die for this?”
The criticism spread beyond social media. The Daily Mail reported that a minister in the United Kingdom rejected the move and said Britain would not follow the U.S. in easing sanctions on Russian oil.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman also questioned whether Trump had any real plan for a prolonged conflict. On CNN, she said, “It’s been very clear in everything the President has said, and he said this publicly, he thought this was going to be over by now.”
Haberman added, “There clearly is not a plan to deal with this,” arguing that the administration did not seem prepared for a longer disruption in global oil markets.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, welcomed the decision. The report said Russia is believed to have around 100 million barrels of oil already in transit that will no longer face U.S. sanctions under the temporary waiver.
That means Trump is now trying to cool down gas prices at home by opening the door to more Russian oil, even as the Iran war keeps getting more expensive. The political blowback is obvious, and it is not going away anytime soon.
