A columnist says one of President Donald Trump's latest moves should serve as a chilling warning to Republicans who think loyalty to him pays off.
In a Tuesday piece for Slate, columnist Fred Kaplan argued that Trump has turned on the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) by striking a deal to buy Russian diesel fuel, a move that flies in the face of a law toughening penalties on Moscow that Congress named after Graham and that Trump himself signed.
Graham died in July at the age of 71. Kaplan wrote that in his final years the South Carolina Republican "sold his soul, abandoned his principles, and betrayed his best friend" to win Trump's ear and push him to back Ukraine.
"It's farcical to believe that cuddling up to this president will earn them favors down the line," Kaplan wrote of Graham's former GOP colleagues. "Trump will push them under the bus on a whim, or...he'll spit on their tombstones."
Trump announced Friday that Russia would sell 300,000 metric tons of diesel to the U.S. and other buyers. Kaplan said the arrangement breaks both the Graham law and an earlier ban on importing Russian energy passed after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He described the president's aim as cutting fuel costs for truckers and farmers ahead of the midterms.
After the announcement, Trump thanked Vladimir Putin and blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for high oil prices, even urging Ukrainians to "get a new president." Kaplan countered that Trump's war in Iran is the real driver of prices.
"Graham should be spinning in his grave at double speed," Kaplan wrote.
He noted the deal has drawn anger from Democrats and a number of Republicans, and that The Wall Street Journal editorial board, usually friendly to Trump, blasted it as "Trump's Diesel Insult to Lindsey Graham."
Kaplan also took aim at New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, who wrote after Graham's death that the senator's closeness to Trump had a "steadying influence on the president." Kaplan said he looks forward to Stephens revisiting that view "now that it's clear Graham's influence on Trump wasn't so 'steadying' after all."
He said he hopes Stephens will push fellow conservatives in media, Congress and the Trump administration "to reconsider their own illusions about the virtues of kowtowing to this president."