Trump Says the Russian Diesel Deal Is Not for Us

U.S. President Donald Trump said on October 13 that a Russian diesel deal is not for Americans. Twelve senators from both parties had just called the same pact a gift to Moscow.

The Treasury paper issued on October 9 still runs the other way. General License 135 authorizes Russian-origin diesel trades through April 7, 2027, and it names U.S. ports as an allowed destination.

The License Still Allows U.S. Imports

Trump announced the volumes on October 9 after a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia would send more than 300,000 tons at once, 500,000 tons in November, and 1 million tons after that, with 3 million more later if Russian plants could run. That stack is 4.8 million tons if every barrel actually sails.

The same day, the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 135, signed by Director Bradley T. Smith. It lifts, until 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on April 7, 2027, the Russia sanctions rules that had blocked sale, delivery, offloading, and importation of diesel of Russian Federation origin, including importation into the United States.

WHAT GENERAL LICENSE 135 DOES

• The trades: Sale, delivery, offloading, and import of Russian-origin diesel are allowed under the two main Russia sanctions codes.
• The U.S. door: The text names importation into the United States, not only sales into third countries.
• The clock: The grant runs through 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on April 7, 2027, 180 days after it was signed.
• The bank limit: It still bars any debit to a U.S. account of Russia’s central bank, National Wealth Fund, or Finance Ministry.

Four days later Trump recast the cargoes as a world-market release. He had told reporters on October 9 that “massive amounts of oil” were “coming into our country, and it’s diesel, which is what we want.” The new line was built for the fight that followed.

That’s a diesel deal. Not for us. That’s being released into the world. That’s not being released to us.

Donald Trump, U.S. president, to reporters on October 13, 2026

He added that the world market had “suffered with high prices” after diesel plants were knocked out, and that Russia was “releasing it to the entire world.” The license was not rewritten. The talking point was.

Congress Finished the Graham Act 21 Days Earlier

On September 18, 21 days before the diesel license, Trump signed the Graham Act on September 18 as Public Law 119-111. The Senate had passed it 86 to 11 on August 7. The House had agreed 262 to 159 on September 16.

The law, named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, was sold as pressure on Russia’s energy trade and on the countries that buy it. It tells the president, within 30 days of enactment, to raise duties on Russian goods to a rate of up to 500 percent and allows duties of up to 100 percent on goods from countries that rank among the top buyers of Russian oil and gas or that help evade oil sanctions. That 30-day mark falls on October 18, nine days after OFAC opened the diesel window.

THE SANCTIONS CALENDAR AROUND THE LICENSE

1. September 18, 2026: Trump signs the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026.
2. October 9, 2026: He announces the Putin diesel volumes; OFAC issues General License 135.
3. October 13, 2026: He tells reporters the diesel is not being released to the United States.
4. October 18, 2026: Many Graham Act sanctions and tariff steps are due to take effect or be carried out.
5. April 7, 2027: General License 135 expires at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time.

The Graham Act also says it does not strip OFAC of the power to issue general licenses. In that narrow sense, Treasury did not have to tear up the new statute to write GL 135. The political sequence is still the one senators are using: a Russia pressure bill in September, a Russia diesel permit in October.

Hormuz and Drone Strikes Cut Diesel Supply

The price problem Trump is trying to talk down is real, and it is a refining problem more than a crude problem. Dallas Fed economists Jesse Thompson and Garrett Golding wrote on October 8 that war and shipping losses have taken as much as 10 percent of global refining offline, a hole of 6 million to 8 million barrels a day.

The March closure of the Strait of Hormuz briefly blocked about 5 million barrels a day of Persian Gulf product exports. Iranian strikes and blocked tankers then cut the oil processed by Middle East plants by 2.0 million barrels a day from February through August, using preliminary International Energy Agency figures those economists cited. Ukrainian drones, they wrote, reduced Russia’s refining capacity by as much as 60 percent over summer 2026, though the monthly readings jump around, and IEA tallies put the drop in Russian crude processing and product exports at 1.5 million barrels a day.

Diesel took the hit because that is the cut of the barrel Europe and the United States could least spare. Product markets were already tight before the Iran war began in February. Russia then restricted its own diesel exports from July to cover domestic gaps. European buyers leaned harder on U.S. distillate, which is why American pump prices can jump even when U.S. plants are running hard.

THE DIESEL PRINT TRUMP IS CHASING

• U.S. pump: EIA on-highway diesel averaged $6.199 a gallon the week of October 5.
• The record: The same series peaked at $6.529 the week of September 21.
• The year-ago gap: The comparable week in 2025 was $3.711, a rise of $2.488.
• The crack: The NYMEX ultra-low-sulfur diesel crack against WTI fell $6.45 a barrel on October 9 to $96.80 after the announcement.

Those tanker strikes that squeezed the Strait of Hormuz are why a Russian diesel permit showed up in an American midterm autumn. World diesel trades as one pool. Extra barrels in Asia or the Mediterranean can ease the crack that sets U.S. wholesale, even if no cargo ties up in Houston. That is the cleanest version of Trump’s “world market” line. It is also why a license that still names the United States is not a small drafting slip.

4.8 Million Tons Cover About 10 Days

S&P Global Platts conversion puts one metric ton of diesel at about 7.45 barrels. The first 300,000 tons are 2.24 million barrels. EIA put U.S. diesel demand at 3.65 million barrels a day in the week ending October 2, so that opening cargo is 0.61 day of U.S. use. The full 4.8 million tons are 35.76 million barrels, about 10 days of U.S. demand, and a little more than one day of world demand.

THE TONNAGE TRUMP ANNOUNCED ON OCTOBER 9

Goldman Sachs told clients the October and November lots would cut wholesale diesel on the U.S. Gulf Coast and in Europe by $1 to $2 a barrel. The same desk put a much larger dent, about $11 a barrel, on a 50 million barrel draw from European strategic stocks. Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, noted that the United States is a net diesel exporter and does not need Russian molecules to fill trucks.

Neil Atkinson, former head of the IEA’s oil industry and markets division, called the first cargo “a very, very small amount that will have virtually no impact.” The October 9 crack move showed traders will mark a headline. It does not show a winter of cheap farm diesel. U.S. distillate stocks were already lean, and Goldman said global diesel output had fallen for seven months with seaborne exports down 1.4 million barrels a day, or 20 percent, from a year earlier.

Collins Says the President Is Not Following the Law

On October 13 a bipartisan group of senators sent Trump a letter that called the October 9 deal “a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our allies” and said it “should be rescinded.” They wrote that it “will not achieve just ends, nor will it benefit Americans,” and that Kremlin receipts would “finance its desired war of attrition and advance its security cooperation with China, Iran, and North Korea.”

The signers were Democrats Richard Blumenthal, Chris Coons, Dick Durbin, Jack Reed, Jeanne Shaheen, and Sheldon Whitehouse, and Republicans Alan Armstrong, Susan Collins, John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and Thom Tillis. They said they knew Americans wanted lower energy bills, and they still judged the diesel window as offering “limited to no relief.”

Collins, a cosponsor of the Graham Act, put the charge in her own name two days earlier.

I oppose President Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on the purchase of diesel from Russia. I was a cosponsor of the Russian sanctions law, which the President recently signed but is now not following.  https://t.co/ojFs2OYn7G

— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) October 11, 2026

Blumenthal, who co-wrote the original sanctions bill with Graham, called the diesel permit “an embarrassment” that “makes us complicit in Putin’s war against Ukraine” and “an insult to Lindsey Graham’s memory.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went further the afternoon the deal landed, while Ukrainian and U.S. teams were meeting in Florida.

I believe our team is simply being used as a smokescreen. This is certainly dishonest; it is certainly not how partners should act.

Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, voice memo to reporters on October 9, 2026

He said an agreement that lets Russia export diesel means “additional funds for the war” and called it “a weak decision.” The White House wanted a price headline before November’s midterms. Kyiv heard a revenue line for a war it is still fighting.

The 2022 Oil Ban Never Got a Certification

Even if OFAC can punch a hole in its own Russia codes, a separate statute still sits on U.S. imports. The Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act, Public Law 117-109, signed April 8, 2022, bans products of the Russian Federation classified under chapter 27 of the tariff schedule, which includes diesel, in line with the 2022 import prohibition.

That law lets a president end the ban only after certifying that Russia has agreed to withdraw its forces and stop hostilities on terms accepted by Ukraine, that it poses no immediate military threat to a NATO member, and that other listed security tests are met. The termination then waits 90 calendar days, during which Congress can pass a joint resolution of disapproval. Trump has not sent that certification.

Several senators argue GL 135 therefore cannot lawfully land Russian diesel on a U.S. dock. That fight is why “not for us” is a useful phrase even if the license text still says the opposite. World-market sales can proceed through non-U.S. ports, insurers, and traders who need a Treasury green light. A Houston discharge is the piece the 2022 statute was written to stop.

The license also leaves EU and U.K. import bans untouched. Those governments spent years pulling Russian diesel out of their systems and then leaned on U.S. exports when Gulf and Russian barrels disappeared. A six-month U.S. permit does not force Rotterdam to take the fuel. It does tell every trader that Washington will not treat the trade as forbidden through early April.

A Six-Month Window Moscow Wants to Widen

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on October 12 that diesel exports could reach 3.0 to 3.5 million metric tons a month by year-end, “returning to the levels seen before the crisis.” That monthly pace is already in the neighborhood of Trump’s entire 4.8 million ton stack. Novak said the Trump deal would “partially balance global supply and demand” and claimed world diesel prices had fallen “around five to six percent.”

If Russian plants actually recover that fast, the story is not a one-off favor of 300,000 tons. It is a U.S. legal umbrella over a rebound in Russian product exports into the winter, paid in hard currency, while the Graham Act’s tariff tools sit on a clock that runs to October 18. Putin said he was “convinced this will have a positive impact on the entire global economy.” The senators’ letter said the same cash would fund a war of attrition.

GL 135 can be pulled as fast as it was issued. Until it is, Russian diesel has a written path onto the world market, and on paper into the United States, through the first week of April, while the president tells voters the barrels are not for them.