President Donald Trump wants the U.S. to slap tariffs on Iran, even though the country barely sends anything here.
On Wednesday, July 29, 2026, Trump told reporters that he wanted Congress to impose tariffs on Iran within a bipartisan sanctions bill that was already moving through the Senate. The bill is named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who died unexpectedly in mid-July. His sister Darline Graham now holds his Senate office.
"I'd like them to add Iran as tariffs, not just as sanctions," Trump said. "It would make it much stronger."
The bill had just cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate with a vote of 86 to 12, showing broad bipartisan support. But Trump's demand changes the math.
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Here is the thing about trade between the U.S. and Iran right now: there is almost none.
Villanova School of Business international business professor Jonathan Doh, in an email to CNBC, called the tariff threat 'entirely symbolic.' He added that 'U.S. imports from Iran are trivial.'
The U.S. Treasury Department has already been tightening sanctions on Iran, so there is not much left to restrict. Adding tariffs on top of that is like locking a door that is already bolted shut.
But here is the problem: Trump has made tariffs his signature foreign-policy tool, and that divides lawmakers. Democrats in Congress generally oppose using tariffs broadly, and they see this as another way to push trade war politics into a bill that had nothing to do with that.
If the tariff demand gets added, the bipartisan support could crumble. The bill that was sailing through the Senate might stall or die.
The Graham-named sanctions bill, originally crafted to tighten restrictions on Iran and Russia, aims to impose economic penalties on Russia and entities aiding its war in Ukraine. It had passed a procedural vote with overwhelming bipartisan backing, reflecting a rare area of agreement on national security. Trump's tariff demand introduces a divisive element that could unravel that support, highlighting the ongoing friction between the White House and Congress over trade policy.
The political stakes are high. Lindsey Graham was a deeply respected voice on national security during his 22 years in the Senate, and his sister Darline holds the seat partly to carry forward his legacy. Many lawmakers viewed the bill as a tribute to his work, and its bipartisan nature reflected that. Adding a divisive tariff provision risks turning a memorial bill into a political battleground, a scenario that could erode the goodwill that propelled it through the initial vote.
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