Losing could help Sullivan salvage a little dignity

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, gives his annual address to the Alaska Legislature on Feb. 18, 2026, at the Alaska State Capitol. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Rich Moniak

Sen. Dan Sullivan is not a free man. At least not as free as Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). And maybe not as free as his brother Frank. Unlike Alaska’s junior senator who tethered his political fortunes to the unforgiving tyranny of President Donald Trump, they can talk about how the war with Iran and his tariffs have created economic havoc for American households and businesses.

Along with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Cassidy was one of the seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. Despite efforts to atone for that, he wasn’t able to assuage Trump’s thirst for revenge. The president endorsed a Republican House member for Cassidy’s Senate seat. Then celebrated his third place finish in Louisiana’s Republican primary by crowing “it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!”

But as Cassidy recently told a reporter from The Dispatch, he’s “much freer to point out that now gasoline prices are up because the president started a war that he doesn’t know how to get out of.” He noted diesel and fertilizer prices are also much higher. And he blamed Trump’s “on-again, off-again tariffs” for increasing the costs of other goods.

Frank Sullivan has been the chairman and chief executive officer of the Sullivan family business, RPM International, since October 2008. According to the NY Times, in April he complained to analysts and investors that the war and tariffs are contributing to volatility that “is frustrating a lot of folks.” 

Granted, that’s not the same as Cassidy’s on the record criticism. But while Frank Sullivan is a private citizen with no obligation to go public with his concerns, his brother Dan is a U.S. senator who shouldn’t be self-censoring his perspective on issues impacting his constituents.

Sen. Sullivan never spoke up to correct Trump’s flawed argument that foreign businesses are paying the cost of his tariffs. What makes his silence even worse is as an RPM stockholder, he benefited from the increased cash dividend it paid this year that was made possible in part by its decision to raise prices to offset some of its losses due to the tariffs.

Sen. Sullivan didn’t attend the so-called midterm convention Republicans held in Dallas last week. But he would have fit right in. Except for the two hours Trump hogged the stage both nights, they did little more than shower him with undeserved praise. 

Trump was the only party official who mentioned the tariffs. But if his claim that they delivered “trillions of dollars” in revenue to the US treasury was true, every other speaker would have made a big deal about it.

Trump also tried to paint the war as a success story perched on the near horizon. As if he forgot the many other occasions he said it was already won, he predicted the price of “oil will be going down as soon as we win the war with Iran, which is taking place right now. We'll win it. We're winning it.” 

Then he blended an alternative reality with an ego satisfying fantasy.  

“We control the Hormuz Strait,” he said. And added the name should be changed to the “Trump Strait.” 

No one had the nerve to remind him that all ship traffic had enjoyed free passage through the strait until he started the war. And a few days later they all had to swallow the news that the war had expanded to the other side of the Arabian Peninsula. Iranian backed Houthis seized a port in Yemen that’s vital for shipping oil from other Red Sea ports.  And an Iraqi militia sympathetic to Iran launched a drone attack that forced Saudi Arabia to shut down a major oil pipeline.

Sullivan’s answer to this latest oil price shock was to brag again about the waiver of the Clean Air Act he helped obtain. But that will do almost nothing to offset diesel prices hitting an all-time record high. Or the higher cost of heating oil Alaskans will be paying later this fall and likely through the winter.

The irony of all this is if Kamala Harris beat Trump two years ago, Americans wouldn’t be struggling with higher prices caused by an unconstitutional war or a senseless trade war. And Sullivan would be probably be cruising to reelection. 

Instead, he’s out campaigning to save his political life when, as Cassidy learned, losing is the best path to liberating himself from having to pretend Trump isn’t making America a weaker and poorer country. 

• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.