Republicans and Democrats condemned Trump’s waiver of the Graham Act’s Russia tariffs and sanctions, and Rep. Don Bacon said he won’t fund Trump’s agenda.
Trump’s executive order of Friday, Oct. 16 waived the penalties two days before they were due to take effect, among them a 100% tariff on the top five buyers of Russian oil and gas and a 500% tariff on Russian goods.
The penalties never took effect for a single day, and the White House has named no Russian concession received in exchange.
October 18, 2026 · Six stories, illustrated
Against it
- Rep. Don Bacon · Republican · Nebraska, on X
Trump’s agenda “is dead. Many of us won’t fund these things knowing he is propping up a dictator’s invasion and throwing an ally under the bus.”
- Sen. Thom Tillis · Republican · North Carolina, to NBC
“there’s a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law.”
- Sen. John Cornyn · Republican · Texas
“Lindsey would be appalled.”
- Chuck Schumer, Senate Democratic leader
Trump “just gave Putin the best birthday gift he’ll get this year.”
- Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president
Called the decision unfortunate and urged the law’s backers to keep speaking out.
For it
- Taylor Rogers, White House spokesperson
Enforcing the penalties now “would impede ongoing U.S. efforts to negotiate a durable and comprehensive peace agreement.”
- Rep. Thomas Massie · Republican · Kentucky
One of seven Republicans who voted against the law, he was “glad to see Trump has used the executive authority granted to him by Congress to waive almost all of the provisions of this stupid law.”
The Graham Act’s penalties on RussiaPassed the Senate 86-11
- 100%tariff on the top five buyers of Russian oil and gas
- 500%tariff on Russian goods
- § 115The off switch Congress wrote in: only a written national-interest certification and a report explaining it. The White House says Trump submitted both.
- Due to take effect
- Sunday, Oct. 18
- Waived
- Friday, Oct. 16
In force: not a single day
The order sets no end date. The waivers stay in place until administration officials decide further action is needed, and the White House says Trump keeps the power to switch the penalties on.
Government funding deadlineDec. 11
- Every House Democrat
- Don Bacon
- Two more Republicans
All voting no: enough to sink a party-line bill.
- 300,000 metric tons
- of Russian diesel Trump said would be supplied immediately, under a deal announced the week before the waiver
- $6.18 a gallon
- U.S. retail diesel the week of Oct. 12, in the Energy Information Administration’s weekly survey, down from the year’s weekly high of $6.53 the week of Sept. 21
- Up almost 70%
- since the Iran war began in February, per NBC News
Read the reporting
The Justice Department denied that agents broke a judge’s limits when they searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home.
Omar’s lawyers say agents broke the limits a magistrate judge set for the Monday, Oct. 12 search of her Washington home. The department says agents “complied with all court orders.” Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, has not been charged with anything.
Search of Omar’s Washington homePer CBS News
- 1Omar first screens seized material for legislative privilege, the Constitution’s shield for a lawmaker’s official work.
- 2Agents notify her and the House’s lawyers.
- 3Agents hand her and her counsel the warrant at the start.
Whether agents followed them: no court has ruled
Omar’s lawyers
Letter of Friday, Oct. 16- The House counsel was never notified.
- Agents kept Omar from reaching her lawyer for more than an hour after the search began.
- They demand her property back, including her personal cellphone.
- They ask that all video and audio of the search be preserved.
The Justice Department
A spokesperson- Agents “complied with all court orders.”
- The letter is “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies.”
- “Leaking a letter to the press right after sending it is not good faith. It is a publicity play.”
NewsNation, citing unnamed sources, reports that agents collected her family’s trash for DNA before the search and that more than a dozen raids ran at the same time. It cites no named official, lab result or court filing.
If fraud is proven, Omar “should probably serve time in the gray bar motel and then get the hell out of here.”Rep. Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican and the House majority whip, to Fox News
- The record
Omar came to the U.S. in 1995 and became a citizen in 2000, through her father’s naturalization, per Fox News.
- A federal court
It must find the citizenship was illegally obtained, or won by hiding or misstating a material fact.
- Maslenjak v. United States, 2017
The Supreme Court held that the lie must have mattered to getting it.
- The age question
Reports said a Minnesota grand jury subpoenaed relatives over whether her age and family filings were falsified. Under the law then, a child derived citizenship only if the parent naturalized before the child turned 18, so that theory would require showing she was already 18.
Still open: no court has ruled on whether agents followed the judge’s limits.
Read the reporting
Trump said Los Angeles election officials “will all go to jail” if they count the mail ballots of 20,000 people DHS flagged as likely noncitizens.
Trump reposted on Truth Social a Justice Department warning that counting those ballots could make officials “aiders and abettors” of illegal voting, and added his own line. The warning came from acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter; the department has sued the state and Los Angeles County to keep the ballots uncounted.
“They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!”
The law the warning cites18 U.S.C. § 611tops out at one year per violation
One cellabout 20,000 people DHS flagged as likely noncitizens: about 0.09% of the roll
Every cell20,000 registered voters
The lit cell is the list’s size, not a count of noncitizens: in court, the department’s lawsuit says only that officials “believe” the flagged people “may be” registered. The list is about 20,000, so the lit cell is approximate; the last cell is drawn as the quarter it is.
In court
The department’s lawsuitSays only that officials “believe” the flagged people “may be” registered, and calls them “likely” noncitizens.
In public
A department spokesperson, to the Los Angeles TimesThe 20,000 “have been manually verified.”
Logan’s office said on Friday, Oct. 16 that it had yet to receive the method behind the list.
“The U.S. Department of Justice has chosen to litigate their unverified assertions of voting eligibility. At this point, it is best for this to be addressed in court.”Dean Logan, Los Angeles County registrar, on Friday, Oct. 16, 18 days before the Nov. 3 election
- 90 days
- The National Voter Registration Act, the federal voter-list law, requires mass computer-match removal programs to stop 90 days before a federal election.
- §2201(a)(8)
- California’s Elections Code requires proof a voter is ineligible, not just a missed DOJ deadline. A wrongly cancelled voter can register conditionally through Election Day, Nov. 3, and the ballot counts once the county verifies eligibility.
- Aiding and abetting
- Prosecutors would first have to prove a noncitizen actually voted, then that the official knowingly meant to help. A database flag shows neither.
- Past lists
- Texas flagged 95,000 voters in 2019, and its elections director later testified that more than 25,000 were citizens. In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin suggested California had some 190,000 noncitizen voters, per the Los Angeles Times.
Still open: the Justice Department’s lawsuit asks a court to order the flagged ballots held uncounted; no judge has granted that yet.
Read the reporting
Zelensky said Ukrainian road tests show Starlink and Starshield terminals cut out above 161 km/h only inside Ukraine.
Ukrainian testers drove vehicles carrying the terminals, SpaceX’s consumer and military satellite-internet services, through EU countries and into Ukraine, Zelensky said Saturday, Oct. 17. Abroad the link held above 180 km/h; inside Ukraine it dropped at 161 km/h (100 mph).
He called the limit a “planned operation.”
400 km/hinterceptor drones the network carried before the cap, per Axios
above 180 km/hin EU countries, the link held; how far above, the tests do not say
161 km/hinside Ukraine, where it dropped: 100 mph
80 km/hFebruary 2026: the cutoff that grounded a drone unit
Each bar starts at 0 km/h. The abroad reading is a floor: the link held above 180 km/h, and the reporting does not say how far above, so that bar stops at 180 with an open end. The dashed mark on each track is the 161 km/h cutoff inside Ukraine.
“Here it shuts off in the second minute after 161 km/h and stops working. We lose both drones and connectivity.”Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president
- Fighter jets
- Ukraine’s interceptor drones can’t work under the cap, so it is sending fighter jets after Russian Shahed attack drones instead. Zelensky says those jets hit about half their targets.
- More than 15 sites
- of power generation and transmission hit by Russia in one large attack the same day, he said, CBS reports.
- SpaceXcalls it a technical problem
- SpaceX contactspoint to the White House
- The White Housepoints to Elon Musk
Per a Ukrainian official, to Axios. No one has said who ordered it.
- September 2022
Elon Musk refused coverage toward occupied Sevastopol.
- October 2022
1,300 unpaid military terminals went dark.
- February 2023
SpaceX curbed drone control.
- February 2026
A cutoff above 80 km/h grounded a drone unit. A whitelist of registered terminals restored service within days.
- Now
The cap is twice as high, and it applies only inside Ukraine.
Still open: who ordered the cap.
Read the reporting
Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz hit a record high, NBC News reports, and Iran’s Guards say two tankers hit mines.
Attacks on ships in and around the strait, the narrow channel between Iran and Oman that carries Gulf oil to the world, have surged as Iran escalates, NBC News reports. The International Maritime Organization counts more than 20 civilian sailors killed since February.
CENTCOM says about 400 merchant ships crossed in the past seven days, and about 97% of those that tried got through without being hit.
Iran’s claim
Reuters, Saturday, Oct. 17Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said two tankers caught fire after hitting mines in the strait.
The U.S. answer
Capt. Tim Hawkins, CENTCOM spokesmanThe Guards are “not achieving their objective of closing the Strait of Hormuz. It is open.”
CENTCOM is the U.S. military command for the Middle East. Reuters reported no independent confirmation that mines caused the damage.
- about 400
- merchant ships crossed in the past seven days, per CENTCOM
- about 599
- crossings in a normal 2025 week, by IMF PortWatch’s count
- about 903
- crossings a week from Feb. 1–27, just before the fighting, per UNCTAD and Clarksons
Not one series: CENTCOM has not said which vessel types its count includes, so its 400 may not compare with either baseline.
- About 20 million barrels a day
- of oil moved through the strait before the war, roughly a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade, per the International Energy Agency’s 2025 figures
- 6–10%
- of a ship’s hull value: what war-risk insurance ran in early October
Still open: neither tanker has been named. Al Jazeera said ship names and cargo origins were not immediately available.
Read the reporting
The Federal Election Commission enters the midterms with two of its six commissioners, too few to open investigations or answer campaigns’ legal questions.
The Federal Election Commission, the agency that enforces federal campaign-finance law, has six seats and needs four votes to act, the Washington Post reports. Only two commissioners remain. This is the fourth time it has lost its quorum, the minimum number of commissioners needed to vote.
about 6 months2008
about 9 months2019–20
about 5½ monthsJuly to December 2020, spanning that November’s presidential election
about 17½ monthsSince May 1, 2025, as of mid-October 2026
Lengths are the reporting’s approximations. The current lapse is still running, so its bar ends open.
What stops
- Opening new investigations
- Fining violators
- Finishing audits
- Formal advisory opinions: binding answers to a campaign that asks whether a specific plan is legal
What continues
- Staff take in and publish campaign finance reports
- Staff answer filing questions
- Staff log new complaints
- At least two new commissioners
Each confirmed by the Senate and sworn in. One new commissioner alone would leave the agency at three, still one vote short.
- Monday, Oct. 19 · Thursday, Oct. 22
The next Senate sessions, pro forma ones: brief meetings where normally no business is done. The Senate could confirm both nominees at one of them by unanimous consent, which means no senator objects.
- Monday, Nov. 9
The Senate’s first scheduled chance to confirm the two pending nominees, six days after Election Day.
The FEC is not the only enforcer of campaign-finance law: the Justice Department can still bring criminal charges for knowing and willful violations, with or without the commission.
- $2,000 or more
- in knowing, willful violations in a year: up to one year in prison
- $25,000 or more
- the maximum is five years
- Personal use
- Turning campaign money into personal spending remains a federal crime.
- False reports
- Deliberately falsifying reports filed with the FEC remains a federal crime.