Lindsey Graham has warned Donald Trump that the U.S. is being “played” by Russian President Vladimir Putin as he leads a bipartisan push to cripple the Kremlin with America’s toughest sanctions yet.
As the White House drags its feet on Russia despite its ongoing aggression against Ukraine, the traditional Trump ally has joined forces with Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal and dozens of other Republicans and Democrats to push for 500 percent tariffs on countries buying Russian oil, gas, and uranium.
Fresh from meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Graham has suggested that the sanctions bill could be considered in the Senate as early as this week due to the lack of progress in achieving a ceasefire in Ukraine.
If eventually passed, it would target nations like China and India, which account for roughly 70 per cent of Russia’s energy trade and bankroll much of its war effort.
“Russia indiscriminately kills men, women, and children. It’s time for the world to act decisively against Russia’s aggression by holding China and others accountable for buying cheap Russian oil that props up Putin’s war machine. If you want this war to end, push China to help end it,” Graham wrote on X on Sunday.
Ahead of the whirlwind trip, he also warned against not taking decisive action.
“Putin, in my view, is playing us all,” he said on the Senate floor last week.
“They’re not going to change until we up the ante.”
But others in MAGA world weren’t impressed by the Republican Senator’s international diplomacy.
Speaking on his “War Room” podcast, MAGA insider and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon accused Graham of “stirring it up” over Ukraine and said the White House should tell him “to come home or we are going to put you under arrest when you come home.”
“Lindsey Graham’s going over there and saying, ‘Hey forgot Trump. I got the House and the Senate. We’re going to pass it’.”
The bill currently has 81 co-sponsors, including Trump allies such as Katie Britt, Tom Cotton and Dan Sullivan, and is a sharp divergence from the president’s more conciliatory stance against Putin.
It comes after Ukraine launched unprecedented drone strikes deep inside Russia over the weekend, targeting dozens of strategic bombers at several bases.
While Trump came to office promising to end the Ukraine war “on day one”, he keeps pushing back the “deadline” of two weeks to come to the negotiating table for a ceasefire that he has given Putin.
”I’ll let you know in about two weeks,” Trump said last Wednesday. “We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not. And if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently.”
In a statement after her meeting with Graham, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen “welcomed that Senator Graham committed to ramping up pressure on Russia and moving ahead with the [sanctions] bill in the Senate next week.
“Pressure works, as the Kremlin understands nothing else,” she said.
