A prominent Republican senator has accused President Donald Trump of potentially breaking US law by striking a deal with Russia to supply diesel to global markets, deepening a bipartisan rift over sanctions policy just weeks before the midterm elections.

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he believes there is a legitimate legal case against the president. “I do believe there’s a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law,” Tillis said, according to Reuters.

What the deal involves

Trump announced on Friday that Russia, following a phone call with President Vladimir Putin, had agreed to supply diesel to global markets. The administration temporarily lifted US sanctions on Russian fuel to allow it, with more than 300,000 tons arriving immediately and a further 500,000 tonnes expected in November, according to Al Jazeera.

The arrangement comes against a backdrop of surging US diesel prices, which hit a then-record $5.85 a gallon on September 4 before climbing further, reaching $6.32 by October 6, according to AAA figures cited by CNBC. Prices have risen about 68 percent since the escalation of the US-Israel war with Iran disrupted Middle East oil supply.

“It’s clearly not a fix, but another stream to aid a very tight diesel market.” — Jim Mitchell, Wood Mackenzie

A law named after a Russia hawk

The legal dispute centers on whether the deal violates a 2022 congressional ban on Russian energy imports, and on a sweeping sanctions law Trump signed just three weeks earlier. The Senate passed that law 86-11 on August 7, and the House agreed to it 262-159 on September 16. It was named the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026” after the longtime Russia hawk, who died in July.

Seven senators, Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Tillis and John Curtis, and Democrats Jeanne Shaheen, Richard Blumenthal and Ron Wyden, issued a joint statement Sunday calling on the administration to “immediately reverse course.”

“Congress was clear: the U.S. should not import oil from Russia until it ends its aggression against Ukraine and ceases threats against our NATO Allies.” — Joint statement of seven US senators

Tillis, who is retiring from the Senate in January 2027, warned he would withhold support for Trump’s year-end funding priorities unless the White House changes course, and cautioned that Putin would exploit any opening. “I will guarantee you at the first opportunity Putin has to embarrass or undermine President Trump, he will,” he said.

Administration pushes back

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rejected the legal challenge on Fox News, saying the administration would proceed “with all the legal authorities we have” and that “anyone in Congress who says whether it’s an old bill or the current Lindsey Graham bill prohibits us from doing it is wrong.” He also accused European governments of hypocrisy, saying Europe has given Russia more money since the invasion than it has given Ukraine.

Not all Republicans oppose the deal. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso defended it on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” calling it leverage against Putin rather than a concession. “The president is balancing and has to make tough decisions,” he said. Former Vice President Mike Pence took the opposite view, calling the move a “betrayal” of Lindsey Graham’s legacy, while Representative Don Bacon said propping up “Putin’s war economy is morally wrong as he uses that money to bomb cities.”

Analysts doubt the deal will meaningfully ease US pump prices, leaving the political fallout, over legality and over the direction of American Russia policy, as the more lasting consequence heading into the November 3 midterms.

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