{"id":11092,"date":"2025-07-08T23:17:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T23:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-now-backs-tough-russia-sanctions-bill-graham-says\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T23:17:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T23:17:39","slug":"trump-now-backs-tough-russia-sanctions-bill-graham-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-now-backs-tough-russia-sanctions-bill-graham-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump now backs tough Russia sanctions bill, Graham says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A bill targeting Russia with substantial new sanctions is gaining momentum in the Senate, with a key GOP senator signaling Tuesday that President Donald Trump is now on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re moving,\u201d said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the bill\u2019s author, adding that Trump \u201ctold me it’s time to move so we\u2019re going to move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham joined Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other Republican senators in signaling a scheduling announcement later this week. That could set up the long-stalled bill to come to the floor later this month.<\/p>\n

The burst of momentum comes after Trump publicly suggested Tuesday<\/a> he was seriously looking at the sanctions bill as he aired sharp frustrations with Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s refusal to enter peace negotiations with Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, Graham and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) tweaked the bill to provide expanded presidential waiver authority. That, they believe, addresses the White House\u2019s push for more flexibility for Trump.<\/p>\n

While the existing bill would let Trump waive sanctions on nations purchasing Russian oil or uranium for 180 days, the revised bill provides for a second 180-day waiver, Graham said. Invoking the second waiver would prompt a congressional vote, though he did not detail what the vote would entail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m confident the president is ready for us to act,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n

A White House spokesperson declined to comment on Graham’s statement and instead pointed to Trump’s public comments earlier Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The sanctions will not be on the floor this week, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private scheduling.<\/p>\n

But Thune told reporters<\/a> he’s coordinating closely with the White House and House on timing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have more to say about that later this week,\u201d Thune told reporters, adding that there\u2019s a \u201clot of interest\u201d in moving the bill.<\/p>\n

Jake Traylor contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill targeting Russia with substantial new sanctions is gaining momentum in the Senate, with a key GOP senator signaling Tuesday that President Donald Trump is now on board. \u201cWe\u2019re moving,\u201d said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the bill\u2019s author, adding that Trump \u201ctold me it’s time to move so we\u2019re going to move.\u201d Graham joined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}