Trump urges Republicans to add Iran to Russia sanctions bill

Trump the president pressed lawmakers to fold Iran into pending Russia sanctions legislation, saying Senator Lindsey Graham had planned the move as the U.S. war with Iran drags into a fifth month.

First Published: July 19, 2026, 4:07 AM ET

WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald Trump pressed Republicans to attach Iran to the pending Russia sanctions bill in a Truth Social post on July 19, 2026 at 7:54 AM ET.

Here is the full post on truthsocial: “Republicans should add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill. That’s what Lindsey wanted to do, and it was going to happen. IMPORTANT!!! President DJT”

The demand names Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who authored the chamber’s leading Russia sanctions measure, as the architect of the plan. Trump framed the addition as a step that had momentum before stalling. He offered no timeline and did not specify which penalties Iran would face.

The push arrives as the U.S. war with Iran enters its fifth month with no end in sight. The conflict began in February and has cost as much as $100 billion so far, according to notus.org. The Trump administration this week restarted a blockade on Iranian ports and launched dozens of strikes. It warned it would escalate against bridges and power plants if Tehran refuses a deal.

Adding Iran to the sanctions bill would raise the stakes for lawmakers already uneasy about the war’s economic fallout. Republicans on Capitol Hill fear election damage from rising gas prices tied to the conflict, according to notus.org. “It’ll weave back into the affordability issue. It makes it very difficult,” Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said of fuel costs.

The war is broadly unpopular even as Trump’s base holds firm. A majority of Americans, 57%, say going to war in Iran was the wrong decision, while 27% say it was right, according to yougov.com. MAGA Republicans back the war 77% to 5%, but non-MAGA Republicans have flipped to opposition. Nearly half of Americans, 46%, expect the war to last another year or more.

For the average American, the fight registers most at the gas pump. “My wife just said, “Oh my gosh, I just put 40 bucks into the car, and I didn’t have to put that much gas in,”” Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, said of the price spike, according to notus.org. Higher fuel costs ripple into groceries, shipping and household budgets already strained by inflation.

Has this happened before? It has. Congress has repeatedly bundled Iran sanctions with penalties aimed at Russia and other adversaries. The clearest case is the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which combined measures against Russia, Iran and North Korea into a single law.

The next move rests with Senate Republican leaders and Graham, who controls the timing of his sanctions bill. Lawmakers will press the administration next week when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee. No date has been announced for a vote on adding Iran to the measure.

Washington’s habit of leaning on sanctions against Tehran stretches back decades. The United States first froze Iranian assets in November 1979, after militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans for 444 days. Congress followed with the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 and tightened the screws again in 2010 over the nuclear program. Each round deepened the estrangement between the two capitals, and the embargo President Jimmy Carter imposed outlasted his time in office.