I called for retention and was immediately shot down, but the wording of the rep led me to believe that she didn't even bother looking at what card this was. After a brief discussion in which I explained why not waiving the fee made absolutely no sense considering that the country was closed to foreigners for almost 2 years, she said the request to waive the fee was sent to a manager for approval, with an answer by Tuesday. If I DON'T hear back by Tuesday, it means it was approved. If I get a phone call, it wasn't approved.
TLDR: U.S. Bank is weird and will update back on what ended up happening.