A disagreement over how to honor the late Sen. Lindsey Graham is exposing a new divide between President Donald Trump and Congress, spearheaded by some of the South Carolina Republican's closest Senate allies.
Trump wants lawmakers to pass major cryptocurrency legislation in Graham's memory. Senators who worked alongside Graham for years, however, are rallying behind the sweeping Russia sanctions package that he negotiated until the final hours of his life, arguing that the measure more faithfully represents his political legacy.
The debate began Monday when Trump urged the Senate to approve the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, known as the CLARITY Act, which would establish a federal regulatory framework for cryptocurrency markets.
"In honor of Senator Lindsey Graham, a big supporter, the U.S. Senate should pass the CLARITY Act," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In honor of Senator Lindsey Graham, a big supporter, the U.S. Senate should pass the Clarity Act. China, and many other countries, would like to take complete and total control of this major financial “happening,” as well as A.I., where we are now leading, but where they are… pic.twitter.com/0xJ9M3TbO5
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) July 13, 2026
The request surprised lawmakers because digital-asset regulation was never among Graham's defining issues. He did not sponsor the legislation and was not a member of the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees financial and cryptocurrency policy.
Graham was instead best known in the Senate as a defense hawk, a champion of NATO and one of Washington's most outspoken advocates for Ukraine. In the days before his sudden death at 71, he had returned from Kyiv after working to secure White House approval for a sanctions bill designed to deprive Russia of revenue used to finance its war.
On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of senators formally introduced an updated version of the Russia sanctions legislation Graham developed with Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
The disagreement over how to honor Graham comes amid a series of recent clashes between Trump and congressional Republicans over legislative priorities. Earlier this month, Trump refused to sign the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, calling it "a big yawn" and using the measure to pressure Congress into passing his SAVE America Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
Although the housing bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers and ultimately became law without Trump's signature, the episode exposed growing frustration on Capitol Hill over the White House's insistence on tying unrelated legislation to its election agenda.
The SAVE America Act has itself become another source of friction between Trump and Congress. While House Republicans have repeatedly advanced versions of the legislation and are now attempting to include parts of it in a budget reconciliation package, Senate Republicans have acknowledged they lack the votes to move the bill under regular Senate rules. Senate Majority Leader John Thune previously rejected Trump's calls to change or bypass the filibuster to pass the measure, while procedural disputes over the legislation have repeatedly disrupted the House schedule, underscoring the challenges Republican leaders face in translating Trump's priorities into law.
Graham's final legislative battle
The revised bill would allow Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that remain among the largest purchasers of Russian oil and gas. China and India would be among the principal targets, along with Slovakia, Hungary, and Azerbaijan. Earlier versions of the legislation proposed tariffs as high as 500%.
The measure would also sanction Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials, target major Russian financial and energy institutions and crack down on the "shadow fleet" of tankers Moscow uses to evade international restrictions.
Countries importing less than 15% of Russia's natural gas while actively reducing their dependence could qualify for exceptions. The president would also receive broad authority to delay or waive sanctions when he determines that doing so is in the national interest.
Graham announced days before his death that senators had reached an agreement with the White House on a version Trump would support.
"We've reached an agreement with the White House on a version of the Russian sanctions bill that they will support," Graham told reporters in Kyiv. "It means it's going to become law."
That agreement followed more than a year of negotiations and repeated trips overseas by Graham and Blumenthal. The senators had previously described the original proposal as an effort to impose "bone-crushing" economic pressure on Moscow and countries helping finance the war through Russian energy purchases.
Senators consider naming the sanctions bill after Graham
Blumenthal and other lawmakers have discussed naming the Russia package after Graham, whose support for Ukraine often placed him at odds with isolationist members of his own party.
The proposal has attracted broad bipartisan support, and Senate leaders are seeking to move it quickly through Congress. Supporters say passing it would complete the work Graham was pursuing immediately before his death and provide Trump with additional leverage in negotiations with Moscow.
The legislation still faces procedural and political obstacles. Because its tariffs could raise federal revenue, lawmakers may need to address a constitutional requirement that revenue-related measures originate in the House. Some Democrats are also uneasy about giving Trump extensive discretion over when sanctions are imposed or waived.
Still, the measure appears to have considerably more bipartisan momentum than the CLARITY Act.
Trump's crypto push faces an ethics fight
The CLARITY Act is intended to clarify when digital assets fall under the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Supporters argue that the legislation would end years of regulatory uncertainty and prevent cryptocurrency companies from moving their operations overseas.
But the Senate version has become entangled in a dispute over Trump's financial interests in digital assets.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Banking Committee, said Monday that any cryptocurrency legislation reaching the Senate floor must include provisions preventing a sitting president from personally profiting from crypto ventures.
Without strong ethics guardrails, the Clarity Act will make it even easier for Donald Trump to continue to profit off his crypto ventures. https://t.co/NEg5FHJ5eA
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 13, 2026
Those ethics concerns, combined with Graham's limited involvement in cryptocurrency policy, have made Trump's proposed tribute especially awkward for some senators, who spent his final months working beside him, as hey want Graham remembered not through a cryptocurrency bill he played little role in shaping, but through the Russia sanctions package he believed could change Vladimir Putin's calculations and help bring the war in Ukraine to an end.
