Pain at the Pump and Pentagon? GOP Threatens DOD Funds Over Russia

President Donald Trump’s diesel deal with Russia’s Vladimir Putin drew immediate backlash on both sides of the aisle last week, but there may soon be repercussions beyond merely bad optics and hurt feelings. Now some House Republicans are warning that no part of the president’s legislative agenda — including a request for $1.5 trillion in Pentagon funding — will pass in the lame-duck session unless he gets tough on Russia.

Meanwhile, fuel costs remain high across the nation. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday, October 18, that the Trump administration has not broken its promise to drop gas prices. Well, fuel costs have come down ever so slightly in the last week, but whether that downward trend continues may depend on whether Trump caves to growing pressure in Congress as well as the war in Iran. Whether any fuel savings end up too little too late come Election Day is another matter entirely.

Defense Funding Can Go to the US or Russia — But Not Both

Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) warned of “consequences” this week should the administration not get serious about Russia. “Agencies won’t get funding if they’re not doing their jobs,” Fitzpatrick told The Wall Street Journal.

“There’s going to be enough pressure from the Hill that the admin recognizes that they need to back off, to some degree, if they actually want to get something done,” a House Republican aide reportedly told The Hill. “There are enough members who are either not returning, or who are going to – after the elections who [have] lost – who are going to feel, maybe, unshackled from their responsibility to be in lock step with the president.”

Democrats, of course, are almost unanimous in their opposition to the Trump administration’s war in Iran as well as his choice of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense (or, in accordance with the president’s penchant for renaming things, Secretary of War). And neither the diesel deal with Russia nor Trump’s criticism of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky are any more popular.

As such, President Trump is going to need the support of almost all, if not all, of the GOP lawmakers in both chambers of Congress to pass anything — including government funding, and particularly for the Pentagon.

“Does the Administration think it will get ANY support for the remainder of the 119th Congress?” Bacon wrote on X. “Their agenda is dead unless they change paths.”

Pain at the Pump and the Ballot Box?

On Sunday, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright if he felt the administration had let America down. “No, we haven’t,” Wright answered before heading off on a tangent about Iran killing its own people and how important it is to not have a nuclear-armed Iranian regime.

“And when we discussed in March, I said the conflict part, the active war that we were – the active attacks we were making would be over in four or five or six weeks, and they were,” he continued. “Gasoline prices did come down. They never got remotely close to $5 a gallon, over $5 a gallon.”

Gas prices, of course, have risen well over $5 – and even north of $6 in some locations – but Secretary Wright is talking about national averages. The national average, according to the US Energy Information Administration, has bounced around between $4 and just shy of $4.50 a gallon since July. For the week of October 12, the national average was $4.331.

So, yes, prices are coming down, ever so slightly. Also, the national average never hit $5 under President Trump – but to say not even remotely close might be a stretch. As Liberty Nation News previously reported, the high under the Trump administration so far was $4.50 in May. Compared to the $2.779 a gallon of January this year, that’s arguably pretty close to $5 a gallon.

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Yes, we’re still doing better than during the Biden era, when unleaded gas hit a national average of $5.006 in June 2022. But that’s only about a 50-cent difference from where we just were not that long ago (gas had spiked to $4.478 about this time last month) and the worst the Biden administration had to offer during the height of the pandemic panic.

Wright’s words have that slick feeling of a politician's carefully spun narrative – not an outright lie, but not exactly the whole truth, either. And for everyone feeling the pain at the pump, such platitudes ring especially hollow.

Just how much fuel will continue to drop in light of the recent deal with Russia remains to be seen — what is certain, however, is that the deal itself has left a bitter taste for most Americans. Funding Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine — even if it does lower fuel prices in America a little — isn’t a good look. Roasting the president of the nation being invaded for fighting back looks even worse. Now factor in the resistance in Congress and the ultimatum to either return to being tough on Russia or risk a lack of government funding. That’s a whole lot of negative right at a time when Republicans on the ballot could really use some public goodwill instead.