President Trump suspended a sanctions bill named in honor of the late Senator Lindsey Graham.
Posted by Up First from NPR, Checked
- Sources
- 4 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 90%
Up First from NPROct 20, 2026
Multiple sources, including AP and Reuters, report that Trump signed an executive order on October 16-17, 2026 that puts on hold or waives the Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which he had signed into law the previous month. The claim's wording ('suspended') matches the reported 'on hold' and 'waived' actions, and the extraction faithfully reflects the passage.
What was said
… We begin with the news. Emily Fang is with us this morning. Emily, so first, run through what President Trump has done to roll back pressure on Russia. Okay, here's just a brief list. He said the Treasury Department lift sanctions on Russian diesel. He's effectively suspended a sanctions bill he just signed into law that was named in honor of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. He said yesterday he was willing to sit down with China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin to talk about the war in Ukraine, even if Ukraine's leader is not there. …
Up First from NPR · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. AP reports that Trump signed an executive order that puts on hold a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, named after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, just two days before its implementation deadline.[1]
Supports. Reuters reports Trump waived newly enacted sanctions against Russian officials, oligarchs, banks and state enterprises, referring to the Graham legislation that he signed into law in mid-September.[2]
Supports. NBC News and the Washington Examiner report that Trump waived the sanctions in the bill named for Graham, citing the national interest, and that the sanctions are no longer taking effect.[3][4]
Context. The sources differ on the exact mechanism (a hold versus a waiver under Section 115 of the Act), and the sources give slightly different signing dates, but none disputes that the sanctions were suspended.[1][4][5]
Sources
5 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 1 tier 2, 2 not rated
- 1Trump puts new Russia sanctions that he recently signed into law on hold, citing national interestapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports, context
- 2Republican backlash over Russia policy poses challenge for Trump in Congressreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 3Trump doubles down after waiving new Russia sanctions ...nbcnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 4Trump waives Russia sanctions ordered by law named for Lindsey ...washingtonexaminer.com · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 5Does Trump's Russian diesel deal betray the U.S.?wbur.org · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- The President announced the waiving of sanctions against Russia.True
- President Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel.True
- The president has discretion under new sanctions legislation to decide whether or not to apply sanctions.True
- Lindsey Graham died a month and a half ago.Mixed
- Senator Jim Kaine stated that they will try to trigger the mechanism within the Lindsey Graham sanctions bill that gives congressional review when the President decides to do waivers.Can’t tell