The White House is facing sharp backlash after the U.S. Treasury authorized limited sales of Iranian oil already at sea – a move aimed at easing soaring energy prices as President Donald Trump’s war with Iran escalates.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the decision as a “narrowly tailored, short-term authorization permitting the sale of Iranian oil currently stranded at sea,” Bloomberg’s Javier Blas reported Friday.
The policy shift less than a month after the U.S. attacked Iran alongside Israel quickly drew outrage from political figures, national security analysts, and journalists.
“YOU HAVE GOT TO BE JOKING,” former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) told his social media followers. “We are lifting sanctions on IRAN. Tell me how this is going ‘as planned’ again please MAGA?”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s official press account posted, “This is blood oil. Trump and Bessent have betrayed the American people and our soldiers.”
Matthew Miller, a former spokesperson at both the Department of Justice and State Department, wrote, “Unreal. The Trump administration is putting money directly in the hands of the regime currently shooting at American soldiers.”
Veteran foreign policy journalist Laura Rozen added in her own social media post: “We are in the upside down.”
Democratic strategist Mike Nellis argued that easing sanctions on a country “we’re actively at war with makes zero f—–g sense.”
“These people are clowns,” he added Friday.
Political scientist Norman Ornstein called the move “impossible to overstate how insane.” While MS NOW national security contributor Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA official, told his social media followers that the “optics of this are pretty bad.”
“Defeating MAGA in November is mandatory if we are to save our country,” concluded retired NASA astronaut Terry Virts. We’ve never faced such a grave threat.”
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE JOKING We are lifting sanctions on IRAN. Tell me how this is going “as planned” again please MAGA? https://t.co/75rGKj1e4s — Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini)
(@AdamKinzinger) March 20, 2026
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