Democrats begrudgingly hand Trump victory on tariffs in sprawling sanctions bill

Several Democrats voted with Republicans to pass a sweeping sanctions package targeting Russia on Wednesday, handing President Donald Trump a key authority the left has long raged against.

The House of Representatives passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, named after the late Republican senator who was one of Ukraine's biggest champions in Congress until his sudden death in July.

It comes despite opposition from key Democrats over a provision giving Trump tariff authority over countries fueling Russia's war in Ukraine.

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"What we're not for is, giving more tariff authority to this president. There is no guarantee in this legislation that the president could not use these tariffs against Ukraine if he decided to do so. There is no guarantee in this legislation that the president can impose these tariffs on Russia, with the enthusiasm that our friends on the other side have offered," Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., said during debate on the bill.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said, "The manner in which this bill has been written doesn't require the president of the United States to impose sanctions on Russia. In fact, there are so many loopholes written into the bill, I believe that it's very unlikely that the sanctions relief contemplated in the legislation will ever see the light of day."

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The bill was led in the House by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, a longtime supporter of Ukraine.

"This is a critical time in history. A time my friend Lindsey Graham described as a magic moment, a moment that we cannot afford to waste," McCaul said during debate. "We shared a fundamental belief that America is strongest at home when it projects strength abroad. This legislation does exactly that."

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He continued, "It targets the money that fuels Russia's war machine. It sanctions Russian officials and oligarchs, banks and financial institutions and the shadow fleet that helps cheap Russian energy moving and through precisely targeted tariffs. It also punishes countries providing financial support for the deadliest war in Europe since World War II. Why? Because, as we've heard from President Zelensky's team, you can evade sanctions, which the Russians have done for years. But you cannot evade tariffs."

The bill, which has gone through several iterations, still primarily focuses on kneecapping Putin’s war machine in Russia’s ongoing fight with Ukraine.

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But tweaks were needed to get sign-off from the White House.However, it reinserted sanctions targeting Iran’s weapons and energy sectors in the hopes of incentivizing a lasting peace deal as the war in the Middle East marches on.

Key components of the legislation allow for up to 500% tariffs on Russian imports; tariffs of up to 100% on the top five countries buying Russian energy, and it provides Trump flexibility for when to turn off some aspects of the sanctions.

The tariff authority has proven a hard sell for House Democrats, though their colleagues in the Senate largely bought in.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., helped create the bill and largely spearheaded Democrat support in the Senate.

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Blumenthal defended the tariff language in the bill to Fox News Digital, "If Donald Trump wants to break this law, he will be restrained by the courts, just as when he broke the law on tariffs previously."

It now heads to Trump's desk for his signature.

At least two Democrats signaled early on that they would support the bill; Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., defied their party leaders on Tuesday to help Republicans break gridlock on advancing the legislation.

Their votes rescued the sanctions package from dying on the House floor amid a conservative rebellion over an unrelated issue. A similar move by the pair earlier this month earned a public reprimand by Jeffries, who called it a "breach of trust."

"Congressman Golden has been a consistent supporter of America’s allies in Ukraine. He didn’t want to see the Russia sanctions bill die in a rule vote after passing with overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate," Golden's spokesman told Fox News Digital of the vote.