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Trapped by a web of deceit
By Rich Moniak
Tuesday’s rally in Wasilla was supposed to be a chance for President Donald Trump to make the case for reelecting Sen. Dan Sullivan. But his speech that ran on for more than 80 minutes was mostly about himself. It also wasn’t surprising that he made no serious effort to address the war in Iran or its effect on the energy prices.
Neither did Sullivan. “Whether you're heating your home or filling up your truck or running a small business, these costs matter,” he said without mentioning the war. “Alaskans should know that all of us, from the president on down, are working on these challenges every day.”
Then he added the solution for “Alaska's energy challenges is to produce more Alaskan energy by and for Alaskans.”
That’s the same lame line his spokesperson used after Trump violated the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act.
Sullivan was one of many co-sponsors of the Graham sanctions bill. Originally introduced in April 2025, it was intended to put pressure on Russia to end its brutally unjust war against Ukraine. One of its provisions would allow the president to impose a 500% tariff on imported goods from countries that buy Russian oil and gas.
Trump signed it into law last month. Then on Friday, he announced Russian President Vladimir Puttin had agreed to export about 36 million barrels of diesel to U.S. and global markets during the next several months. It won’t affect prices much, though, because it’s barely more than the daily global demand.
A bipartisan group of senators, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski and five other Republicans, demanded Trump rescind the deal. It won’t “benefit Americans,” they wrote. It “only provides Putin with more fuel to finance his war machine and enables Russia to continue its brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians.”
In a stunning display of self-serving hypocrisy, Sullivan didn’t sign the letter.
“When America buys Russian oil, we fund Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine and his threats against the U.S. and our NATO partners,” he said when he introduced a bill to ban Russian energy imports a few days after the war began.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order to that effect the same week. During the next two and a half years, Sullivan frequently criticized him for not doing enough to support Ukraine.
Almost immediately after taking office, Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war and pressured them to cede territory to Russia to end it. Sullivan did push back on that. He believed Sen. Graham’s original sanctions bill spooked Putin into agreeing to meet Trump in Anchorage last year.
A few weeks after that summit failed to produce a ceasefire, Trump called on European leaders to stop purchasing Russian oil because it was funding Putin’s war machine.
It wasn’t the last time he reversed positions on the war. That’s partly why it took him well over a year to support the Graham sanctions bill.
Then he violated it in less than a month.
Trump’s deal with Putin wasn’t intended to bring down the price of diesel. Just like his campaign bribe to give every American adult $5,000 if Republicans hold on to their congressional majorities, it was an act of desperation spawned by his fear they will lose the House and possibly the Senate.
Sullivan is desperate too. That’s why he participated in last month’s fake White House announcement that South Korea committed to investing $54 billion in the Alaskan LNG line.
He’s not stupid though. He knows Putin has been playing Trump like a fiddle. But like them, he trapped himself in a web of deceit.
When Putin invaded Ukraine, he called it a “special military operation” that would be over within days. It’s been raging for almost five years and he still won’t admit it was a colossal blunder.
Trump’s war against Iran hasn’t resulted in nearly as much death and destruction. But like Putin, he foolishly expected it to be over quickly and failed to consider its economic repercussions. The odds of him admitting it was mistake aren’t any better than finally acknowledging he lost a free and fair election in 2020.
Sullivan helped Trump escape accountability for trying to overturn that election, then helped him win back the White House. And now he’s afraid to admit how well that worked out for Putin.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.
