Follow us on social

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham

Graham: Trump ready 'to move' on Russia sanctions

Frustrated with Putin, the president also reversed last week's Ukraine aid halt

Reporting | QiOSK

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s long awaited Russia sanctions bill advances — now with President Trump’s support.

The legislation, which has over 80 co-sponsors in the Senate, would impose punishing sanctions on myriad Russian officials and sectors, while enacting 500% secondary tariffs on countries doing business with Moscow, like India and China.

The legislation had stalled for months in light of repeated White House concerns that the package might upset diplomatic efforts toward a negotiated political solution to the war in Ukraine.

But now, Graham says Trump has given the green light. “We’re moving,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the author of the bill. Graham said Trump “told me it’s time to move so we’re going to move.”

Prospects for the legislation bubble amid diplomatic malaise, where Trump, increasingly fed up by the lack of diplomatic progress regarding the Ukraine war, even reversed a decision made by the Pentagon last week to halt Ukraine aid.

“We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump told reporters during his cabinet meeting yesterday. “He’s very nice to us all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

At the cabinet meeting, Trump himself concurred that he was “very strongly” considering the sanctions proposal lobbied by Graham. “It’s totally at my option. They pass it totally at my option, and to terminate totally at my option. And I’m looking at it very strongly,” he said.

Trump’s words have been music to Graham’s ears.

“President @realDonaldTrump is spot on about the games Putin is playing,” Graham wrote on X Tuesday. “The Senate will move soon on a tough sanctions bill – not only against Russia – but also against countries like China and India that buy Russian energy products that finance Putin’s war machine. The Senate bill has a presidential waiver to give President Trump maximum leverage.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) also signaled yesterday there would be an announcement on the legislation soon. “We’ll have more to say about that later this week,” he told reporters, saying there’s significant “interest” in moving the bill forward.

Thune stressed the importance of coordinating the bill’s consideration with the White House to PunchBowl News.

“We want to make sure, when we move it, that we’re coordinating it with the WH, with the House… I’m hoping that we’ll get the other entities in a place where there’s an opportunity for us to get this done,” he said.

Andrew Desiderio reported in PunchBowl News that the week of July 21st was likely the first week the bill could be considered on the Senate floor.


Top image credit: U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) attends a news briefing amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 18, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
Gleeful Graham: Ukraine War all “about money”
Reporting | QiOSK
2023-01-30t130449z_981831287_rc211z92bpxa_rtrmadp_3_israel-usa-blinken-scaled
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement upon arrival at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, on January 30, 2023. RONALDO SCHEMIDT/Pool via REUTERS

Dem-aligned think tank blasted for Blinken appointment to board

Washington Politics

A human rights organization is demanding answers about why the Center for American Progress — an influential center left think tank — awarded a board seat to former Secretary of State Antony Blinken despite his alleged complicity in war crimes in Gaza, according to an open letter shared exclusively with Responsible Statecraft.

The letter, drafted by DAWN, accuses Blinken of providing Israel with “essential military, political and public support to ensure it could continue its atrocities” in Gaza. “We believe that Mr. Blinken is not an appropriate choice to serve as a board member of an organization that aims to ‘promote peace and shared global prosperity’ in light of his well-documented role in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes,” the letter says.

keep readingShow less
Kim Jong Un
Top image credit: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the country's nuclear material production base and nuclear weapons institute, at an undisclosed location in North Korea, in this photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on January 29, 2025. KCNA via REUTERS

Reality check: North Korea won’t give up its nukes

Asia-Pacific

During North Korea’s parliamentary session last week, Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, delivered a speech expressing his clear willingness to engage in diplomacy with the United States. But under one strict precondition: the United States must stop seeking to denuclearize North Korea.

“Personally, I still have good memories of U.S. President Trump,” Kim said in his speech. He added, “If the U.S. drops its hollow obsession with denuclearization and wants to pursue peaceful coexistence with North Korea based on the recognition of reality, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the U.S.”

keep readingShow less
Joint-base-lewis-mcchord-scaled
Top image credit: The DoD found high levels of dangerous chemicals in the "PFAS family" around several military bases, including JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash., pictured here. (U.S. Air Force Photo/Abner Guzman)

DOD has money for boondoggles but not clean water for bases?

Military Industrial Complex

The Defense Department plans to delay cleaning up a class of toxic "forever chemicals” that its activities have left at and around military bases across the country — even as it pursues other financially wasteful endeavors that do little to advance, or may even be counterproductive to, U.S. national security.

The Pentagon estimates it will cost $7 billion per year to clean contamination from perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, found in a firefighting foam the military still uses. This cost estimate, despite increasing in recent years, ultimately amounts to a small fraction of the DoD’s budget, which grew to a staggering $895 billion for FY2025.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.