Frustrated GOP senators blow steam on Russia: ‘Sick of’ Trump, Vance ‘love affair’ with Putin
by Alexander Bolton - 09/16/25 6:00 AM ET
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Senate Republicans are growing increasingly exasperated over President Trump’s refusal to give them permission to move tough bipartisan sanctions legislation against Russia and countries that buy its oil.
Trump pressed European allies over the weekend to levy harsher sanctions against Russia, but he has dragged his feet on the bipartisan sanctions bill, which Republican senators were hoping to get done in July.
The failure to act is fueling growing disillusionment among some Senate Republicans that Trump is not serious about helping Ukraine.
One Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment candidly on the stalemate over the sanctions legislation questioned whether Trump would ever come around to backing more military aid to Ukraine or slapping harsh sanctions on Russia.
“I’m sick of Trump and JD and their love affair with everything Putin,” the senator grumbled, noting Trump’s red-carpet welcome of Russian President Vladimir Putin at Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson last month and Vice President Vance’s recent comments defending Putin’s approach to peace negotiations.
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The Republican lawmaker said Russia’s massive drone and missile attack against Ukraine last week, the biggest aerial barrage of the three-and-a-half-year war, was a major provocation and a clear sign that Putin doesn’t fear serious repercussions from Washington.
“They’re just testing how far we’ll bend over. It makes me sick,” the lawmaker said.
A second Republican senator who requested anonymity observed that Trump has occasionally talked tough about Russia but has failed to “follow through” with action.
Trump gave Russia hawks on Capitol Hill some hope when he declared: “We get a lot of bulls— thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
But then Trump gave Putin a warm reception in Alaska, inviting the Russian president to ride with him in his armored limousine and participating in a friendly side-by-side press conference after their meeting.
The GOP senator said Trump has sent “mixed messages” on Russia, to say the least.
Trump took a step toward appeasing his critics in the Republican Party by urging European allies over the weekend to move first on Russia sanctions.
“I am ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
He criticized NATO allies for not being committed to victory, suggesting the United States is not ready to ratchet up pressure on Ukraine without Europe leading the way.
“As you know, NATO’S commitment to WIN has been far less than 100%, and the purchase of Russian Oil, by some, has been shocking!” he wrote. “It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia. Anyway, I am ready to ‘go’ when you are. Just say when?”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who met with Trump last week in hopes of persuading the president to get behind moving the sanctions legislation, applauded the statement.
The South Carolina senator argued that “sanctions and tariffs, along with the sale of high-end American weapons to Ukraine, is the key to bringing Putin to the table for a just and honorable peace.”
Graham and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), the lead Republican sponsors of the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, said they would push colleagues to attach their bill to the continuing resolution that needs to pass by Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown.
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Monday signaled that’s not likely to happen unless Trump provides approval for such a move, something that GOP senators don’t think is likely to happen in the next two weeks.
“I would say that Russia sanctions — I’m hoping, I talked to Lindsey over the weekend. I hope it’s ripe here soon but I think one of the things the president is trying ensure happens before we do secondary sanctions is that our European allies join us,” Thune told reporters.
Trump set a high bar for the United States moving ahead with sanctions by demanding that “all NATO countries” agree to stop buying Russian oil, given that two of those countries, Hungary and Turkey, have strong trade relations with Russia and are unlikely to break off economic ties.
Thune acknowledged this but argued that core NATO members, including France, Germany and Italy, could put more economic pressure on Russia.
“I can’t speak for every European country but it certainly ought to apply to the French, Italians, the Germans and all of our other NATO allies,” he said of Trump’s demands for a tougher stance from Europe.
Republican senators who support sending billions of dollars of more military aid to the war effort and backing it up with crippling sanctions against Russia’s oil exports have largely kept their anger and agitation over Trump’s handling of the war to themselves.
But some are increasingly speaking out in public, though they are careful not to criticize Trump directly and risk getting pummeled by the president on social media.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said last month’s “Alaska summit” between Trump and Putin “wasn’t good for Ukraine.”
“Why we haven’t taken up a Russia sanctions bill on the floor,” Murkowski said, her voice trailing off.
“I know the answer to that — the answer is the president has asked for some time, but we’ve given him all summer. We’ve given him all summer, look what’s happened,” she said.
“Everyone thought that with the Alaska summit we were going to see something but it wasn’t very good for Ukraine. It just was Putin weighing in,” she said.
“I think it’s long past time that we moved on” Russia sanctions legislation “to send that strong signal from the Congress,” she added.
Murkowski has co-sponsored a proposal with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to provide an additional $54.6 billion in new aid to Ukraine
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) expressed disbelief over the lack of movement on sanctions legislation in Congress, arguing that passing legislation in the Senate would send a strong signal to Russia.
“It’s irrational to me to think it would not raise the awareness on Putin’s part that the Senate has spoken” on sanctions, he said. “Why on earth we’re not taking it up, I don’t see the strategic advantage of that.”
Tillis argued that passing sanctions legislation through the Senate would “send a very clear message of support to our NATO allies and to Ukraine, and also that we’re only one vote away from sending it to the president.”
“That seems like leverage. The fact that we would leave that leverage on the table, I just don’t understand it,” he said.
A White House official, asked about the criticism, said it was “working with Congress to ensure introduced bills advance the president’s foreign policy objectives and authorities.”
“The Constitution vests the president with the authority to conduct diplomacy with foreign nations. Any sanction package must provide complete flexibility for the president to continue to pursue his desired foreign policy,” the official said.
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