Trump enforces and “freezes” the Graham Act’s Russia sanctions and tariffs on the same day – “in the national interest”

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday, October 16, to implement the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026” and, in the same text, suspended almost all the measures it provides for. The order, posted late in the evening on the White House website, two days before the October 18 deadline, sets in its second section an additional 500% tariff on goods from Russia and 100% on goods from the five largest importers of Russian oil and natural gas, if they make new purchases, as well as from the five main facilitators of sanctions evasion.

In the fourth section, however, Trump invokes section 115 of the Act, which lets him suspend any measure if he certifies to Congress that it serves the national interest. “I am suspending the application of all tariffs provided for in sections 112 and 113 of the Graham Act or in this order,” he says, adding that he has submitted the certification and a related report to Congress. The sanctions of most of the Act’s articles, which target Russian officials, banks and the “shadow fleet” of tankers, are also suspended. The exemptions apply until the president or the secretary of state judge that new action is needed. Sanctions already in force under earlier orders are unaffected, and the US Trade Representative will monitor purchases of Russian energy and brief the president.

The Act, which Trump signed on September 18, is named after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly in July after a trip to Ukraine. It was drafted by him and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and passed with large bipartisan majorities. The White House did not explain why the suspension serves the national interest. The decision comes a week after the deal on Russian diesel, which has already drawn reactions in Congress.

“Trump just suspended all the Russia sanctions in the Graham Act, as I and others had warned,” Democratic Representative Don Beyer wrote on X, calling on Congress to “fix this flawed law”. Volodymyr Zelensky had said the same day in Brussels that Ukraine cannot accept such deals, warning that “after gas, they will lift sanctions on other things”. Relations between Washington and Kyiv have worsened after Trump’s criticism of Ukrainian strikes on refineries, which he called a “disgrace”.