A group of House Republicans is urging the Trump administration to choke off Russia’s profits from one of its largest energy companies as global oil prices spike.

It comes as the U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, one of Russia’s closest allies and another major energy producer, is threatening to spiral the market out of control both overseas and here at home.

Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, who chairs the Republican Study Committee, is leading five fellow GOP lawmakers in a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent regarding Lukoil — which accounts for roughly 2% of the world’s oil output.

Western sanctions have forced Lukoil to announce it would sell certain international assets as countries like the U.S. and U.K. attempt to whittle down Russia’s control over global energy.

‘The U.S. government has a significant role — in fact, a responsibility — in determining the ultimate fate of these oil and gas assets. We encourage you to exercise the utmost caution to ensure we do not inadvertently squander this opportunity and relinquish our leverage to U.S. adversaries,’ the Republicans wrote.

They warned against a situation where ‘transaction loopholes or back-room deals with Lukoil’s senior management’ could allow Lukoil assets to ‘slip back into Russia’s hands as tensions subside or U.S. sanctions are lifted.’

The six Republicans on the letter, all from Texas, are also lobbying the administration to ease a pathway for Lone Star State companies to acquire those assets.

‘President Trump has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity not only to defund Russia’s war machine but also for leading American energy companies — including at least two headquartered in the great State of Texas — to acquire the LIG portfolio, permanently removing globally significant oil and gas assets from Russian control, enhancing energy security, affordability, and reliability, and strengthening President Trump’s America First agenda,’ they argued.

‘[W]e encourage the Department of the Treasury — in concert with the White House and Departments of Energy, State, and War — to scrutinize every detail of the various proposals to ensure that any sale of LIG’s assets ‘completely severs’ ties with the Russian parent company, paving the way for American energy companies to meet this moment with the urgency and precision it so deserves.’

The push comes at a particularly consequential time on the world stage as Iran continues to retaliate against U.S. allies in the Middle East.

Earlier this month, the U.S. and Israel began a joint operation launching strikes against Iran that targeted its military and nuclear assets as well as top leadership ranks.

Russia, which has been wreaking havoc on European energy markets with its invasion of Ukraine since February 2022, has reportedly been aiding Iran against the U.S. operation.

The Washington Post reported that Moscow was providing intelligence to Tehran to help it target U.S. forces in the region. It’s a particularly significant development in the wake of eight U.S. service members’ deaths since the conflict began.

Pfluger cited the conflict in the new letter, but did not mention Russia’s alleged role in aiding Iran.

‘American energy dominance is critical to our national security, and as the events of the last several days in Iran and the broader Middle East region have highlighted, our ability to promote peace through strength is enabled by our role in facilitating the stable and secure supply of energy to world markets,’ the letter said.

‘In this increasingly complex geopolitical era, we believe America’s energy companies, and not those of our adversaries, should continue leading the way.’

Meanwhile, AAA reported that the average national gas price in the U.S. rose by 27 cents to $3.25 as of March 5 since the Iran conflict began.

As of March 11, AAA’s calculations put the national gas price average at nearly $3.58.

U.S. forces destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said, in what officials described as a move to prevent Iran from disrupting one of the world’s most critical maritime choke points.

The strikes come as oil traffic through the strait remains at a near standstill, threatening a corridor that carries roughly 20 million barrels per day — about one-fifth of global consumption — and squeezing Gulf exporters like Iraq and Kuwait that rely on the narrow passage to ship their primary source of revenue.

Prior to taking out the mining vessels, Trump demanded Iran remove them ‘IMMEDIATELY!’ warning that if it doesn’t, ‘the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before.’

U.S. officials have long warned that Iran maintains a significant naval mine inventory and has rehearsed tactics designed to threaten commercial shipping in the Gulf. The destruction of the vessels appears aimed at stopping any potential deployment before mines could be laid in shipping lanes.

The Strait of Hormuz, bordered by Iran to the north and Oman and the United Arab Emirates to the south, is a critical artery for global energy markets. Even the threat of mining operations can further disrupt traffic and spike insurance and shipping costs.

It was not immediately clear whether any mines had already been placed in the water before the U.S. action. Citing intelligence sources, CNN reported Iran had laid a few dozen mines in the strait in recent days and had the capability to place hundreds more. 

Since Friday, seven vessels, including four tankers and three bulk carriers, have passed through the strait, according to data from trade intelligence platform Kpler.

The U.S. Navy has been weighing escorts for commercial ships through the strait. 

‘We’re looking at a range of options there and will figure out how to solve problems as they come to us,’ Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine told Fox News Tuesday. 

The world is watching to see whether the Navy will step in to try to free up shipping. Immediately after an inaccurate and since-deleted post from Energy Secretary Chris Wright claiming the Navy had escorted a tanker, oil prices fell nearly 12%.

European allies are moving in as well: France sent two frigates to join a European Union-led escort mission for ships through the strait, though their arrival timeline is unclear.

While U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has claimed the U.S. and Israel have ‘total air dominance’ over Iran’s skies, that doesn’t mean the threat from missiles and drones is entirely eliminated yet. 

The Navy won’t escort tankers until Iran’s missile and drone threat is eliminated, retired Gen. Jack Keane told FOX Business. 

‘Makes no sense in terms of the risk when we’re going to finish them off entirely in a few weeks,’ he said.  

Recognizing the squeeze on prices around the globe, Trump announced Monday the U.S. would remove oil-related sanctions. 

‘We are also waiving certain oil-related sanctions to reduce prices,’ he said during a press conference. ‘So in some countries, we’re going to take those sanctions off until this straightens out. Then, who knows, maybe we won’t have to put them on.’

The United States currently maintains sanctions affecting oil Iran, Venezuela, Russia, Syria and North Korea. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to detail what that relief would look like. A 30-day waiver was already recently issued for Russian oil stranded at sea to reach India.

A naval mine costing only a few thousand dollars can cripple or even sink a $2 billion U.S. destroyer. 

The danger is not theoretical: In 1988, USS Samuel B. Roberts nearly sank after striking an Iranian mine in the Persian Gulf. 

Mine-laying operations are often conducted covertly at night using small vessels such as fishing dhows or fast-attack craft, allowing mines to be deployed with little warning and potentially devastating consequences.

President Donald Trump took a bow Tuesday night for his 5-0 record for his endorsed candidates in the Republican elections held in Mississippi and Georgia.

‘March 10th election update: 5 wins, 0 losses,’ an election night image posted to Truth Social blared. ‘President Trump endorsements 100%.’

The image hailed a 4-0 record in Mississippi (Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss.; Reps. Mike Ezell, R-Miss.; Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss.; Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Miss.) and 1-0 in Georgia, albeit with a bullet.

‘President Trump’s endorsed candidates keep winning because Republican voters trust his leadership and want America First champions in Congress,’ RNC spokeswoman Emma Hall told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘From cutting taxes to securing the border, every Republican candidate in the country is proudly running on President Trump’s record and competing for his endorsement because it remains the single most decisive factor in GOP primaries.’

In one of the marquee matchups, an all-party special election for an open House seat, Republican Clay Fuller earned an April 7 runoff against Democrat Shawn Harris for the seat vacated by former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., in Georgia’s ‘solid red’ 14th Congressional District.

‘Clay Fuller is going to be a fantastic Congressman in representing the Great State of Georgia,’ Trump wrote Wednesday morning on Truth Social.

‘Now we have to be careful and finish it off. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!’

While Fuller did not earn the special election victory, and Harris won the most votes (37.3%) in a 17-candidate field that included nine Republicans, Harris only had to outdistance two Democrats. Fuller trailed Harris by only 3,000 votes at 34.9%. Republican Colton Moore finished third and out of the running at 11.6%, while no other candidate reached 5%.

‘I think the Republican Party is going to unite around us because they know that the Democrat is too dangerous,’ Fuller said Tuesday night. ‘We can’t have a Democrat representing Georgia 14. That would be a tragedy for our community, a tragedy for Georgia 14 and a tragedy for the MAGA movement.’

The total number of votes cast across all candidates in this election result thus far is 115,823, and Republicans outdistanced Democrat votes by nearly 20 points. GOP candidates garnered a total of 59.7%, while Democrats had 39.8% and independents had less than 1%.

‘Congratulations to Clay Fuller, of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, on getting such a high percentage of the vote with 12 Republicans running,’ Trump wrote Tuesday night on Truth Social. ‘We want to make the next vote ‘TOO BIG TO RIG.’ Clay will be a GREAT Congressman — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!’

Fuller was a White House fellow in the first Trump administration and is a lieutenant colonel in the Georgia Air National Guard. He finished fourth in the 2020 Republican primary that Greene won. He credited Trump’s nod for propelling him to the runoff.

‘They want to know who President Trump was endorsing in this race,’ Fuller said. ‘And that’s why they came out in droves to support him, because they want an America First fighter on Capitol Hill fighting for his policies that are going to make a difference for our community.’

Harris said he is not worried about further Trump intervention.

‘If Donald Trump wants to come and do what he wants to do, that’s his business,’ he said.

The House GOP majority is a narrow 218-214 right now, making the Fuller-Harris April 7 runoff an important one for upcoming 2026 votes. There are two other vacancies awaiting special elections this year, including blue-state seats formerly held by New Jersey Democrat Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who resigned from the House in November, and the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., who died Jan. 6.

Illinois is next up on the GOP primary schedule on Tuesday, March 17, when three Trump-endorsed candidates are incumbents: Reps. Mike Bost, R-Ill., Mary Miller, R-Ill., and Darin LaHood, R-Ill.

The next big GOP primary challenge forged by Trump is frequent MAGA foil Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., on May 19. Trump-backed Ed Gallrein is vying for that seat.

‘I predict that ‘Representative’ Thomas Massie will go down as the WORST Republican Congressman in the long and fabled history of the United States Congress, even worse than Crazy Liz Chaney, Cryin’ Adam Kinzinger, and Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown (Remember, Green turns to Brown under stress!),’ Trump wrote Wednesday morning on Truth Social.

‘They are all misfits and losers, but Massie, who is running against a great American Patriot in the Kentucky Primary, will hopefully lose BIG. I LOVE KENTUCKY!!!’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

About 60% of Texas Republicans voted last Tuesday to end John Cornyn’s career in the Senate, but it wasn’t really Cornyn they were rejecting. It was the feckless, do-nothing GOP Senate leadership that makes ‘Waiting for Godot’ look like a ‘Fast and Furious.’

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wound up in a virtual tie with Cornyn, and headed to a runoff precisely because Republican voters, not just in Texas, but across the country, are incandescently angry at the GOP-controlled Senate’s inability to do, well, much of anything.

This righteous fury is why Paxton’s political play in the face of a runoff was so brilliant. He said that if the Senate would pass the Save America Act, and its voter ID provisions, he would drop out, saving President Donald Trump from having to swoop in with a decisive endorsement.

For Cornyn, and more importantly for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., this occasioned a crisis, a much-needed one, in fact, as GOP voters stare across the desk at Senate leadership, like the Bobs in ‘Office Space,’ asking, if they can’t pass a bill with massive public support, what would they say they do there?

Thune responded Monday to growing public calls to pass the Save America Act in the stupidest, most infuriating way possible, by asserting that voters aren’t really angry, and the furor is all just a campaign by paid influencers.

The fact that Thune has not apologized for this yet is incredible. It is as condescending to working-class voters as anything a politician has ever said.

Does Thune think that 60% of Republicans in Texas voting against the Senate status quo is a sign that they think he’s doing a great job?

It is not.

All across the country, Republican voters tell me that they are apoplectic about the Senate. Yes, they understand the arcane 60-vote filibuster stuff. They just don’t care. They want and need action from a body that refuses to act.

And it isn’t just Paxton who knows in his bones how vitally GOP voters need a win on the Save America Act, it is also Trump, who has shown a rare amount of patience with Thune’s ineptitude and incalcitrance. At least so far.

Even Cornyn has come around, if only in the face of his own potential political demise, penning a column in the New York Post calling for the filibuster to be abandoned and the act to be passed.

But Thune, with his long, sad face and low mournful voice like Eeyore the donkey, just keeps saying, ‘We don’t have the votes to break the filibuster.’

Ok, John, then how about this: Any Republican senator who refuses to vote to break the filibuster loses their committee assignments, gets no money from the party and is promised a primary.

The most dangerous thing I heard from GOP voters in Texas, and I heard it from plenty, is that they are starting to think their vote just doesn’t matter, that nothing can change anyway. And right now, who would argue with them?

I don’t know who Thune surrounds himself with who told him that the anger I see everywhere from Republican voters is just a paid influencer campaign, but I would urge him to go talk to some actual voters instead of his K Street cronies.

It was an ominous sign that more Democrats than Republicans voted in last week’s deep-red Texas primary, but not a surprise, because the demoralized aren’t eager voters. And if the Save America Act dies on the vine, even fewer will feel compelled to cast a ballot.

In the final moments of ‘Waiting for Godot,’ Vladimir says, ‘Well? Shall we go?’ To which Estragon replies, ‘Yes, let’s go.’ And then the famous stage direction, (They do not move.).

There is no direct evidence to show that Samuel Beckett was inspired by Senate Republican leadership when he wrote this, but he could have been, because it is the same old scene, over and over.

If nothing else, Thune needs to look GOP voters in the eye and say, directly, ‘We hear you. We know you are angry. We see it in the primary results and we will listen to what you want and try to do better.’

Right now, Thune and Senate Republicans are like the inattentive husband who doesn’t know the divorce papers have already been filed. It may not be too late to work it out with voters, but it’s getting pretty close.

In a sharp break from his long-standing defense of the Senate filibuster, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, urged Republicans Wednesday to enact ‘whatever changes’ necessary to send a Trump-backed voter ID bill to President Donald Trump’s desk before November’s midterm elections.

Cornyn, who is locked in a fierce runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is pressing Senate Republicans to pass the SAVE (Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility) America Act — even if it means scrapping the chamber’s 60-vote legislative filibuster.

His appeal marks a significant reversal for the Texas Republican, who long argued the filibuster served as a safeguard against Democrats advancing sweeping left-wing priorities with a simple majority.

‘For many years, I believed that if the U.S. Senate scrapped the filibuster, Texas and our nation would stand to lose more than we would gain,’ Cornyn wrote in a New York Post op-ed Wednesday morning. ‘But when the reality on the ground changes, leaders must take stock and adapt.’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is expected to put the SAVE America Act to a vote in the Senate next week, but the measure could fail on the floor given widespread opposition from Democrats. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is also facing a weeks-long shutdown over Democrats’ refusal to fund the agency absent vast reforms to immigration enforcement.

Under Senate rules, both pieces of legislation would have to overcome the 60-vote threshold — meaning buy-in from some Democrats — to survive a key procedural vote before final passage.

‘Today, Democrats are weaponizing the Senate’s rules to block the SAVE America Act, defund the Department of Homeland Security and hurt the American people — all to spite President Donald Trump,’ Cornyn wrote.

‘After careful consideration, I support whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary for us to get the SAVE America Act and Homeland Security funding past the Democrats’ obstruction, through the Senate and on the president’s desk for his signature,’ Cornyn added.

Trump has repeatedly called on the Senate to pass the voter ID bill, calling it the ‘number one priority’ during an address to House Republicans on Monday.

The House-passed legislation would require proof-of-citizenship to vote in federal elections, impose voter ID requirements and require states to remove noncitizens from voter rolls. Trump has asked Republicans to add provisions that crack down on mail-in ballots, prohibit biological males’ participation in women’s sports and ban child sex-change procedures. 

Trump has also threatened not to sign any legislation into law until the SAVE America Act clears the Senate. The White House later clarified that DHS funding was not included in the president’s ultimatum.

‘We can either unilaterally disarm, or we can stand and fight,’ Cornyn wrote. ‘The answer is clear: We need to stand, fight and win.

Both Cornyn and Paxton are vying for Trump’s endorsement ahead of the late May runoff election that will decide who will face Democratic candidate James Talarico, a Texas state senator, in the November general election. Trump said last week that he would ‘soon’ back a candidate, but he has yet to issue an endorsement. Cornyn, who has served in the upper chamber since 2002, is seeking his fifth Senate term.

Paxton said last week that he would consider exiting the race if the Senate were to circumvent the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act.

‘The SAVE America Act is the most important bill the U.S. Senate could ever pass, and I’m committed to helping President Trump get it done,’ Paxton wrote. 

Despite Cornyn’s new openness to filibuster reform, the SAVE America Act still faces an uphill battle in the Senate. The bill passed the House last month in a vote mostly along party lines.

Thune, a supporter of the SAVE America Act, has repeatedly said that the votes do not exist to scrap the 60-vote filibuster and advance the voter ID measure.

The majority leader has also warned against using the talking filibuster — a little-used maneuver preferred by some conservatives — arguing that approach would have unintended consequences and risks jamming the Senate floor for an indefinite period.

‘The votes aren’t there for a talking filibuster,’ Thune said Tuesday.

‘I’m the person who has to deliver sometimes the not-so-good news that the math doesn’t add up, but those are the facts and there’s no getting around it,’ he continued.