Rubio says Trump will take up to 60 days to weigh the Russia sanctions he waived on Friday

The waiver now has a clock on it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Saturday that President Trump will take up to 60 days to analyze what imposing the sanctions and tariffs in the Graham Act would mean for the global economy and for the American economy, before a final decision is announced.

The president himself kept the question open. A lot of you do not know what my decision is yet, but we will figure it out, and you will figure it out, he told reporters at his Mar a Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. He called the waiver a very good decision, and one that would be good for the country and good for the world.

The act at issue is the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, signed last month. It would impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on goods from the largest importers of Russian crude oil and gas and penalties on countries that help Moscow evade sanctions. It was due to take effect next week. Friday executive order waived its key provisions without stating a duration, and Rubio remarks on Saturday are the first official measure of how long the pause is meant to last.

Rubio pointed to the complication built into the law. The tariffs would fall not only on Russia but on buyers of Russian energy, and he named India, an important American partner that remains heavily dependent on Russian oil despite diversifying its supplies. The waiver also sits alongside the diesel agreement the president announced on October 9 after a call with President Putin, under which Russia would supply more than 300,000 metric tons of diesel to the world market at once, with larger volumes to follow. The Treasury issued a general license the same day authorizing transactions in Russian origin diesel through April 7, 2027.

The reaction has crossed party lines. President Zelensky warned the waiver would embolden President Putin and prolong the war. Republican Senator Thom Tillis called it beyond irresponsible, and Senator Ted Cruz called it a mistake. The administration answer is the one Rubio gave on Saturday: the diesel was going to reach the world market either way, and the only difference is how much of it the United States gets. Whether 60 days of review ends with the sanctions restored, extended or dropped is the decision the president says has not been made yet.