TRUMP GUTS THE LINDSEY GRAHAM RUSSIA SANCTIONS ACT BEFORE IT CAN BITE
President Donald Trump has invoked the waiver clause of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, suspending its most consequential new sanctions and tariffs against Russia on the grounds that doing so is “in the national interests of the United States.
Can someone remind Trump who the legislation was written to punish in the first place?
The Graham Act was created to squeeze the revenue financing Russia’s war against Ukraine. It targeted Russia’s defense and energy sectors, its banks and shadow fleet, while threatening heavy tariffs against countries continuing to purchase Russian oil and gas.
Trump’s order establishes those tariffs on paper—and then immediately waives them, along with most of the law’s other sanctions. Existing sanctions imposed through earlier executive orders remain in place, meaning this is not the removal of every American restriction on Russia. But it effectively places the strongest new pressure authorized by Congress on hold indefinitely.
One notable provision, Section 102(c), was not included among the waivers. It allows American officials to consider sanctions imposed by allied governments when identifying vessels involved in Russian sanctions evasion. Authority over that provision was delegated to the State and Treasury departments, leaving one narrower enforcement route open.
Congress passed the Lindsey Graham Act to tighten the economic vise around the Kremlin. Trump signed it—and then used its escape hatch to spare Russia from its most powerful consequences.
A sanctions law written to confront Moscow has been gutted before it could bite.