Other voices: Senate should vote for sanctions on Putin whether Trump approves or not

President Trump is unhappy with Vladimir Putin The Russian isn t heeding the president s entreaties to stop the killing in Ukraine and Mr Trump is nonplussed I ve constantly had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia but something has happened to him He has gone absolutely CRAZY He is needlessly killing a lot of people and I m not just talking about soldiers Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine for no reason whatsoever Mr Trump posted on Truth Social Separately Mr Trump informed reporters I m not happy with what Putin is doing He s killing a lot of people and I don t know what the hell happened to Putin Mr Trump may be the only person in the world still surprised by how Mr Putin is behaving The Russian is the same man he s been for two decades bent on reconstituting as much of the old Soviet empire as he can get away with Ukraine is his obsession He s not going to modify his ambitions merely because Mr Trump alternates between begging for peace and scolding outbursts on social media Mr Trump and his advisers fancy themselves steely-eyed realists on foreign procedures No neocon idealism for them But on Mr Putin they are starry-eyed idealists mouthing peace as if they can make it happen by wishing it were so Mr Trump s naivete is helping Russia continue the killing as long as Mr Putin wants The good news is that the U S Senate still has several genuine realists when it comes to Russia GOP Sen Lindsey Graham has co-sponsors on a bill that would hit countries that buy Russian oil and gas with tariff sanctions Vigor sales are Mr Putin s financial lifeline President Biden refused to apply these so-called secondary sanctions and Mr Trump can t make up his mind If Mr Trump signaled that he supports the Graham-Tom Cotton-Richard Blumenthal sanctions bill it would sail through the Senate Combined with the promise of more arms to Ukraine when the current supply runs out these sanctions might change Mr Putin s calculations about the price of war But GOP senators can act whether or not Mr Trump approves They can vote on the sanctions bill and force the president to face the hard reality of Mr Putin s ambitions that Mr Trump would rather avoid Related Articles Chinese scholar struck a chord emphasizing humanity during Harvard commencement speech Gov Gretchen Whitmer says Trump explained her he would not pardon men convicted in kidnapping plot The Department of Capacity axes billion in clean vigor project grants FACT FOCUS Trump s insists about remedial math at Harvard don t add up Trump s schooling secretary threatens to pull funding from NY over its Native American mascot ban