Trump Didn't Drain the Swamp — He Drained the SPR. And Dan Sullivan Has Nothing to Say About It.
You remember the promise. It was the rallying cry of a movement, the chant that echoed through arenas from 2016 all the way through Trump's second inauguration: Drain the swamp.
Well, Donald Trump didn't drain the swamp. He drained something far more consequential — America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And the senator who spent years thundering that the SPR was a sacred national security asset, Alaska's own Dan Sullivan, has gone completely, utterly, inexplicably silent.
— Donald Trump, Inauguration Day, January 2026
The Promise
On his first day back in the White House, Donald Trump stood at the podium and declared a "national energy emergency." He promised to slash energy prices, supercharge domestic production, and — critically — fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve "right to the top." It was a direct shot at Joe Biden, who had drawn down the reserve during the Ukraine energy crisis. Trump's message was clear: Biden left us exposed. I will fix it.
The Department of Energy issued a formal Secretarial Order making "Refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve" an official department-level priority. By December 2025, the White House was still touting its efforts, calling Biden's drawdown "irresponsible" and claiming they were "gradually" refilling it.
Gradually. That word would age very badly, very fast.
Then Came the War
On February 28, 2026, Trump launched Operation Epic Fury — coordinated U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Within days, Iran shut down traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, triggering what the International Energy Agency called the largest oil supply disruption in the history of global energy markets. Oil prices rocketed from the $70s to over $114 a barrel in weeks.
By March 2026 — just two weeks into the war — the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was still less than 60% full. The promise to fill it "right to the top" had gone nowhere. And then it got dramatically worse.
Trump ordered the release of 172 million barrels as part of a coordinated 400-million-barrel international drawdown through the International Energy Agency — the largest emergency reserve release in the history of global energy markets, more than double the response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Experts warned it would not fix the underlying problem. "The war is driving up prices on the world market," said one Cornell professor who studies the economic impact of wars, "and there isn't an easy way out."
Morgan Stanley estimated global oil stockpiles dropped by about 4.8 million barrels a day between March 1 and April 25 — far exceeding the previous peak for any quarterly drawdown in IEA history. The administration is now so desperate to replenish the reserve that it is reportedly exploring drilling for oil beneath U.S. military bases. The swamp remains. The SPR does not.
What Sullivan Said Then
To understand how remarkable Sullivan's silence is today, you have to understand how loud he was before.
When Biden tapped the SPR in 2022, Sullivan didn't just criticize — he made it his signature issue. He called Biden's drawdown "political window dressing." He called it "a desperate political maneuver." He said Biden had "depleted the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to a level we haven't seen in 35 years." He introduced the ROAR Act — the Replenishing Our American Reserves Act — and declared on the Senate floor:
"The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is meant to support our nation through major security crises — not to bail out a President's catastrophic energy policies."
He introduced companion bills to stop SPR oil from being sold to China. He co-sponsored legislation with Ted Cruz and Joe Manchin. He issued press release after press release. He held hearings. He gave interviews. He ROARed.
Sullivan's own words defined the standard clearly: the SPR is for major security crises — and draining it for political reasons is a national disgrace.
What Sullivan Has Said Since
Nothing.
As of this writing, Senator Dan Sullivan has not issued a single public statement addressing the historic collapse of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during the Iran war. Not one press release. Not one floor speech. Not one tweet. Not one interview.
His colleague Senator Tom Cotton — no friend of Democrats — was firing off letters to the Energy Secretary as recently as March 2026, demanding accountability for Biden's 2022 drawdown even as Trump's war was actively making things worse. Cotton at least had the consistency to stay on the issue.
Sullivan? Gone. Silent. Missing in action on the very issue he built his energy brand around.
We're Draining the Reserve and Exporting the Oil
Here is the detail that should make every Alaskan's blood boil.
While the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is being drained to historic lows, and while Alaskans are paying $5-plus at the pump and rural villages face fuel prices approaching $20 a gallon — the United States is simultaneously exporting oil abroad at record levels.
That is not a typo.
With Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz cutting off roughly 20% of global oil supplies, the world turned to America as the supplier of last resort. And the Trump administration answered — by opening the export taps wider than they have ever been opened in American history.
The Port of Corpus Christi in Texas — previously the third-largest oil export terminal in the world — became the busiest port on earth as tankers from Europe, Asia, and beyond lined up to load American crude. March 2026 was its busiest month ever. The first quarter was its busiest quarter ever.
Meanwhile, American domestic crude stocks dropped for four straight weeks to below historical averages. U.S. distillate stockpiles hit their lowest point since 2005. Gasoline stockpiles fell to their lowest seasonal levels since 2014. And the SPR — the emergency reserve built specifically to protect American consumers from exactly this kind of crisis — was drained at the fastest pace in its history.
The picture this paints is stark: American oil is being pumped out and shipped overseas at record rates, American consumers are paying record prices at the pump, and America's emergency reserve is being hollowed out — all at the same time, all because of the same war.
This is Trump's "energy dominance" agenda in action. And it is costing Alaskans dearly. Rural communities are staring down $17-20 a gallon. An Anchorage driver's tank costs $100 to fill. A Wasilla man spends $150 a week on fuel just to commute.
Where is Dan Sullivan on any of this? The senator who built his brand on Alaska energy, American energy independence, and protecting the SPR — the senator who introduced the ROAR Act and roared about every barrel Biden released — has said nothing about record oil exports draining domestic supplies while his own constituents can't afford to heat their homes.
Nothing.
The Math Sullivan Won't Do in Public
Let's do it for him.
Biden drew down roughly 180 million barrels from the SPR in 2022 — during a genuine global energy crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Sullivan called it a disgrace, introduced legislation, and made it a centerpiece of his political identity.
Trump has now released 172 million barrels from the SPR — during a war Trump himself started, without congressional authorization, that Sullivan voted seven times to continue. The SPR is now on a trajectory toward 238 million barrels by 2028 — a level that would leave America dangerously exposed to the next shock, whether that's a hurricane, a Chinese move on Taiwan, or a new conflict in the Middle East.
By Sullivan's own stated standard, this is a catastrophe. A national security emergency. Exactly the kind of reckless political decision-making he spent years warning Alaskans about.
But it's Trump doing it. So Sullivan says nothing.
Drain the Swamp. Fill the Reserve. Pick One.
Trump's "drain the swamp" slogan was always more metaphor than policy. But the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is not a metaphor. It is 695 million barrels of salt caverns along the Gulf Coast, built after the 1973 oil embargo, designed specifically so that America would never again be held hostage by a foreign power's control over energy supplies.
Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz was exactly the scenario the SPR was built for. And instead of meeting that moment with a full reserve — as Trump promised — the country went in with a tank that was already less than 60% full, thanks in part to the fact that Congress, including Sullivan, never funded or passed a serious refill plan.
The ROAR Act died in committee. Twice. Sullivan ROARed and got nothing done. And now the reserve is heading toward its worst level in decades, Alaskans are paying $5-plus at the pump, rural villages face a survival scenario at $17-20 a gallon — and Sullivan is sending fundraising emails asking Alaskans for gas money.
Trump didn't drain the swamp.
He drained the SPR.
And the senator who said that was the one thing he'd never let happen hasn't said a word.
The Bottom Line
Dan Sullivan built a political brand on protecting America's emergency oil reserve. He named legislation after it. He gave it a battle cry. He made it a test of patriotism and national security seriousness.
Then his party started a war that drained that reserve to historic lows. And he went silent.
That silence has a cost. It is measured in dollars at the pump in Anchorage. It is measured in gallons at $17 in Bethel. It is measured in 13 flag-draped coffins coming home from a war nobody voted to authorize. And it is measured in a Strategic Petroleum Reserve that, by 2028, may hold barely a third of what it held a decade ago.
Sullivan says Alaska needs you.
Alaska needs a senator who shows up — even when it's his own party doing the damage.
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