US President Donald Trump will support the Russia sanctions bill Lindsey Graham spent two years trying to pass. A White House official told CNN on Monday that the president backs the bipartisan package, days after Graham's sudden death.
The bill allows the president to impose heavy tariffs on imports from any country that buys Russian oil, uranium, or natural gas. Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced it as the Sanctioning Russia Act in 2025, with 500% tariffs on purchasers of Russian petroleum and uranium. It drew more than 80 Senate cosponsors, a veto-proof majority, and went nowhere.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune froze it to give Trump room to negotiate an end to the war, and the White House opposed it, arguing it would undercut diplomacy. Trump repeatedly panned the legislation and pushed for discretion to impose sanctions himself rather than be told to do so by statute.
Trump answers on bill himself
Asked directly by CNN's Kaitlan Collins whether he would sign it, Trump said: "Yeah, we're talking about it."
Graham announced the breakthrough on 10 July. He and Blumenthal said they had reached an agreement with the administration after extended negotiations. He died the next day, at 71, having just returned from Kyiv, where he met Zelenskyy on 10 July.
Thune says it was what Graham cared about most at end
Thune said the White House had been working closely with Graham on the measure and that he was hopeful it would pass.
"It'll take Democrats and Republicans here in the Senate to do that, but I'm hopeful we can make it happen," Thune said.
In Graham's last days, the sanctions package was "the thing that he cared the most about in terms of an accomplishment, and it would certainly be an incredible legacy for him."
Blumenthal, who traveled to Kyiv with Graham repeatedly since July 2022, said he planned to speak with Thune about timing.
"It should be seen as a fitting tribute to Sen. Graham to do it quickly in his memory," Blumenthal said. "It's exactly what we were talking about when I last spoke to him over the weekend."
The bill now needs a new lead Republican sponsor. Finding one is on Blumenthal's agenda with Thune.
Leverage is higher now than when bill was written
The sanctions target the countries buying Russian energy. China and India together take roughly 85% of Russian crude exports.
They would land on a Russian oil sector that Ukraine has already broken open. Ukraine's General Staff reported on 4 July that Ukrainian strikes have idled 42.74% of Russia's oil refining capacity, resulting in $13.5 billion in industry losses since August 2025.
A law that taxes buyers arriving while the refineries burn is a different instrument from the same law would have been a year ago.
Zelenskyy said last week that there is now no Russian oil refinery that Ukrainian weapons cannot reach.
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