President Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to incorporate sanctions against Iran into the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) bipartisan legislation sanctioning Russia and countries that buy Russian oil was met with confusion by some of the Democrats supporting the bill.

The legislation, which was renamed in the late senator’s honor, places sanctions on Russia and secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil and gas in an effort to cut off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ability to finance his war in Ukraine. It also codifies sanctions against Russia that have already been implemented via executive order, preventing a future president from easily terminating them.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday that, “Republicans should add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill. That’s what Lindsey wanted to do, and it was going to happen.”

His comments come less than a week after he said that Republicans would “like to add Iran and they’d like to add Hezbollah” to the sanctions package. “That’s what I’m hearing,” the president told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.

“This is in honor of Lindsey,” Trump said when asked if he will sign the Russia sanctions bill if it reaches his desk. “This was his thing, he wanted this more than any other thing. You know how he felt.”

The president’s comments came as a surprise to the Democrats who worked with Graham on the legislation, who noted that the late senator had never sought to add sanctions on Iran or its proxies into the package. 

“Our Russia sanctions bill was meticulously crafted during painstaking, sometimes painful negotiations over many months,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who spearheaded the effort alongside Graham for over a year, told Jewish Insider in a statement. “This bill should move forward as quickly as possible — as is — without additional provisions, which can be done separately.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Bloomberg’s “This Weekend” on Sunday that, “Sen. Graham never raised the concern about putting Iranian sanctions on the bill.”

“The fact is, we have significant sanctions on Iran. When the war started, we put additional sanctions on Iran. I think if the president wants to do that, let’s do it in a separate bill, but this bill is moving,” Shaheen said. “It’s targeted in a way that is important and it comes on the heels of the G7 conference, where everyone, including President Trump, signed on to a communiqué that said we need to support Ukraine and put more pressure on Putin. That was echoed at the NATO summit.”

“We know that that’s what it’s going to take to get Vladimir Putin to the table,” she continued. “So far, we have not been successful at getting him to the negotiating table. Let’s put more pressure on him to do that.”

Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), a cosponsor of the sanctions legislation and an ally of both Graham and Trump, did not rule out Trump’s idea to add Iran sanctions to the bill during a joint appearance with Shaheen on “Fox News Sunday.” 

“I think Lindsey Graham was clear-eyed about this,” Britt said. “He knew what Iran was capable of, and he knew that when they chanted, ‘Death to America,’ that they meant it. Look, he believed in President Trump and knew that President Trump had what it takes to create a resolution to what is happening there”

“Being able to move this bill across the finish line — [along with] the bipartisan support that we have gotten to hold Putin accountable, to give President Trump the flexibility and the tools he needs and the economic firepower to bring Putin to the table to create peace and resolution here — will ultimately have a lasting impact across the globe, making sure that those who are funding bad actors, whether it be Russia or those in Iran, will be held accountable,” the Alabama senator continued. 

Graham and Blumenthal first introduced their legislation last April. By May, the duo had accumulated more than 80 cosponsors in the Senate for the bill, which was repeatedly stalled last year as the late senator worked to secure Trump’s support. Despite the bipartisan support, a number of Democrats and other critics, including the Wall Street Journal editorial board, expressed concern about the legislation over the fact that its language grants sweeping tariff authorities to the president.

After being sworn in last Tuesday, Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), the late senator’s sister who was appointed to serve out the remainder of his term, sponsored a revised version of the legislation, which was renamed to honor her late brother. The bill has since collected 62 cosponsors.