Republican Mike Rogers said he would have backed tough Russia sanctions President Trump is waiving, joining retiring GOP lawmakers who call the move a mistake even as Rogers rejects claims the White House is siding with Putin.
Michigan’s GOP Senate nominee told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday that he would have voted for the bipartisan Russia sanctions package Trump put on hold Friday, arguing the United States cannot afford to ease pressure on Moscow.
Rogers said the waiver may not deliver the diesel-price relief the administration wants for American drivers and farmers, while still framing Trump’s aim as lower energy costs rather than a gift to the Kremlin.
“I would have voted for the sanctions bill on Russia,” Rogers said. “I don’t think we can give Putin an inch. And we will see. If the strategy works, hey, good on him, because that means we’re going to pay less for diesel here in the United States.”
"I would have voted for the sanctions bill on Russia," Rogers said. "I don’t think we can give Putin an inch. And we will see. If the strategy works, hey, good on him, because that means we’re going to pay less for diesel here in the United States."
The Graham Act, named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, cleared the Senate this summer by an overwhelming bipartisan margin and authorized tariffs of up to 100% on major importers of Russian petroleum products. Trump announced Friday he was suspending those sanctions, restrictions, and duties.
In the waiver order, Trump wrote that he was acting in America’s national interests and had certified that finding to Congress.
"I am hereby waiving the application of such sanctions, restrictions, and duties provided for in the Graham Act," the order stated. "I have submitted to the Congress a certification that the issuance of such a waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States."
Last week the administration struck a deal allowing Russia to sell diesel into the U.S. and global markets amid fuel shortages. Rogers said that push for cheaper fuel is real, and that Michigan residents are already paying a steep price at the pump.
“If the president has a better idea to get diesel prices down, I’d be for it,” Rogers said. “I’m just a little skeptical that this will work in the way that the administration wants it to work.”
He tied high diesel costs to broader energy pressure, including the Iran conflict, and said his priority is simple: put more money back in workers’ wallets. If elected, he said he would push a temporary ban on U.S. diesel exports and a rebate for agricultural diesel.
“We are paying a pretty heavy price here in Michigan,” Rogers said. “We have got to get these prices down, which is why I called to, hey, it’s time to just wrap up the Iran conflict.”
Rogers also said Trump is trying to cut prices while still confronting an Iranian regime that wants a path back to a nuclear weapon, a mix he warned “adds complexity to the geopolitical stage.” He rejected the charge that the president is choosing Russia over Ukraine.
That careful break lands in a Michigan race already drawing national money and unusual cross-party interest, including a high-profile endorsement of Rogers from Jill Biden’s former press secretary.
Trump carried Michigan in 2016 and 2024, so Rogers’ willingness to second-guess the waiver on national television is notable inside a party that usually closes ranks behind the president on foreign policy.
Outgoing GOP voices went further. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is not seeking reelection, called the decision beyond irresponsible and demanded to know why a law the Senate passed 86-11 was not being enforced.
"What part of enforcing a law passed 86-11 by the Senate does the President and his advisors not understand?" Tillis wrote on X. "It’s unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every single day."
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who lost his primary after Trump backed his opponent, offered a shorter verdict on the same platform: “Lindsey would be appalled.”
Retiring Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a frequent Republican voice on overseas military commitments, argued the waiver was “prolonging the war, not ending it.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Piers Morgan he felt “betrayed” by the decision. Those reactions put Rogers in a narrower lane: disagree on the tool, credit the goal of cheaper diesel, and refuse the narrative that Trump is soft on Putin.
Donor politics in the same contest are already scrambling old lines, with Metro Detroit Democratic donors preparing to help Rogers if a progressive wins the other primary.
Rogers cast the fight as kitchen-table economics first. Diesel hits farms, trucking, and household budgets hard in industrial Midwestern states. He wants exports reined in temporarily and ag users shielded with a rebate, classic supply-side pressure paired with targeted relief.
He also linked pump pain to unfinished business with Iran, saying the conflict must be wrapped up so prices can fall. In his telling, the administration is juggling price relief and a regime that still eyes nuclear capability. That is a harder foreign-policy puzzle than a pure sanctions vote.
Progressive energy is pouring into the Democratic side of the Michigan map. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez transferred $1 million to boost Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate bid, raising the odds that Rogers could face a left-wing nominee in November.
Trump has already drawn sharp contrasts with that Democratic field on the trail, including a repeated line of attack on El-Sayed at a Georgia airport rally, underscoring how nationalized the Michigan contest has become.
Ocasio-Cortez has also campaigned in Michigan for El-Sayed, another sign that outside progressive infrastructure sees the seat as a priority. Rogers’ sanctions comments give Republican primary and general-election voters a clearer read on where he parts company with the White House, and where he does not.
The statute’s core design was punishment: hit Russia and the countries buying its oil and gas with steep tariffs so petroleum revenue could not quietly fund the war against Ukraine. An 86-11 Senate vote is about as close to consensus as modern Congress gets on a major foreign-policy stick.
Trump’s counter is national interest defined as cheaper diesel for Americans facing shortages and high prices. The waiver freezes the new tariffs and related restrictions while the Russia diesel sales arrangement proceeds. Rogers says he will judge the policy by results at the pump. Tillis, Cornyn, and Bacon say the results that matter are leverage on a dictator and fidelity to a law Congress already passed.
Those are different scoreboards. One measures household fuel costs in Michigan. The other measures pressure on Moscow and the precedent of shelving a bipartisan sanctions bill months after it cleared the Senate.
Rogers tried to hold both thoughts at once on national television: vote for the sanctions, doubt the waiver will work as advertised, still want prices down, and reject the smear that Trump is rooting for Putin. Retiring members felt no need for that balance. Their criticism was blunt, public, and aimed straight at enforcement of a law they say the administration is setting aside.
For Michigan voters, the practical test remains whether diesel gets cheaper without handing Moscow a strategic windfall, and whether a Senate candidate can say “I would have voted yes” without becoming a full-time critic of a president who twice won their state.
Accountability still means judging policy by results, not rhetoric: keep pressure on despots, keep faith with statutes Congress actually passed, and keep faith with workers who need lower fuel costs without excuses.
