President Trump on Sunday called on Congress to add Iran to a bipartisan Russia sanctions bill to honor its late author, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
The bill, first introduced in April 2025, has seen recent momentum after having been stalled in Congress while Trump seeks to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his war with Ukraine. Graham had announced a breakthrough before his death, saying that a deal was reached with the White House to move forward on the long-stalled Russia sanctions package.
“Republicans should add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “That’s what Lindsey wanted to do, and it was going to happen. IMPORTANT!!!”
The Trump administration has — for more than a week — resumed its conflict with Iran via a series of attacks and a halt to negotiations to end the conflict that started with joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.
The U.S. military launched retaliatory attacks Saturday in response to Iranian strikes that saw two service members killed in Jordan. Trump has called these deaths “a very sad thing.”
U.S. Central Command said the latest strikes were intended to further degrade Tehran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and “punish” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces that launched missiles and drones against U.S. soldiers in Jordan the day before.
Trump’s call to include Iran in the bill comes as he is signaling more support for Ukraine in the face of Putin’s refusal to end his war with Kyiv.
