Graham sanctions will hand Trump a loaded gun aimed at Russia | News In Depth
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump as he traveled to America to pay his last respects to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who had relentlessly worked to convince his party colleagues and Trump to pass crippling sanctions on Russia and countries that continue buying its energy commodities.
“Even the sanctions themselves are kind of a watered-down version of what Senator Graham proposed a while ago: tariffs of 400% on the purchases of Russian oil and gas. That’s been watered down to 100%. Still a lot,” said Stuart Dowell, TVP World’s Political Editor. “And also these are not automatic. These are at the president’s discretion. It kind of gives President Trump a set of tools. It’s like giving him a loaded gun. He can decide whether he wants to use it or not.”
Recent months have shown a marked improvement in the relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy, with Ukraine having impressed the White House with its campaign of long-range strikes against key Russian energy infrastructure. The change is apparent not only in U.S. policies, but also in messaging from MAGA influencers, chief among them Laura Loomer, who is said to have Trump’s ear. Why the change?
“Loomer is a great supporter of Israel. She sees Iran as an enemy, as a big enemy of both Israel and the United States,” Dowell said, adding that Loomer’s pivot does not represent the whole movement, with influencers such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens preferring to stick to the Kremlin’s talking points “Whereas Loomer sees Russia as having taken a side by supplying Iran, as we know now, with targeting information, other types of intelligence, and being responsible in that sense, even for the deaths of American servicemen.”
Join News in Depth’s host Ashim Kumar as they explore what Zelenskyy can hope to achieve during his U.S. visit, what exactly could Kyiv’s role be in a global security architecture in which Washington hopes to refocus its attention on the Asia-Pacific region, and whether the review of U.S. military presence in Europe will see the continent left to its own devices, or with a strengthened NATO eastern flank.
Chapters:
00:00 Zelenskyy’s “reset” meeting with Trump
03:42 Late Sen. Graham’s Russia sanctions bill: What is in it?
05:51 MAGA influencer Laura Loomer’s shift on Ukraine
09:36 Why Ukraine now fits into Trump’s global strategy
12:52 How Russia-Iran ties have affected public opinion in the U.S.
15:52 U.S. force posture in Europe, and NATO burden sharing
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