Trump Invokes Late Sen. Graham to Push His Crypto Bill
Trump urged the Senate to pass an industry-friendly crypto bill 'in honor of' the late Lindsey Graham, as Democrats warn the legislation enriches him.
President Donald Trump wants the Senate to pass a crypto bill he stands to profit from. On Monday he made the pitch in the name of a dead colleague. Trump urged senators to advance the industry-friendly legislation 'in honor of' Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican, whom he called a 'big supporter.' Graham never sponsored the bill. He did not sit on the Senate Banking Committee that advanced it earlier this year. That did not stop Trump from making him the face of the ask.
The money in the middle
The partisan fight centers on the president's own holdings, not the fine print. Trump recently reported making more than $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency in 2025. The industry-friendly legislation he is now championing includes no ethics provisions to regulate the crypto holdings of elected officials, which is precisely the objection Democrats have raised. A sitting president pressing for rules on a market he profits from is not a hypothetical. It is a number he reported.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren made the objection official. In a Monday letter to the Senate's majority and minority leaders, she warned that Trump stood to benefit financially from the very bill he was urging them to pass. It is the same conflict Democrats have flagged for months: no ethics language anywhere in the text covering the crypto holdings of elected officials, the president included. Republicans have not added it. Trump spent Monday asking for a vote, not an amendment.
A shrinking majority
The arithmetic is not helping Trump either. Graham's death and Sen. Mitch McConnell's continued absence have thinned an already narrow Republican majority to 51-47. That is a real problem for a bill this close to the edge. It has the White House pushing it and major crypto companies lined up behind it. Neither of those fills a Senate seat, and the margin for defections just shrank.
That is what makes the Graham tribute land oddly. Invoking a senator who had no formal role in the legislation, at the moment the votes to pass it are getting harder to count, reads less like a memorial than a whip count. The ethics language Democrats want is still not in the bill. The majority that would pass it without them just got smaller.
Sources
- Trump urges Senate to pass industry-friendly crypto bill 'in honor of' Graham
Disclosure
Our stories are produced with a combination of human writers and AI tools, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Read more in our editorial policy. This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial, investment, or legal advice. Crypto assets are volatile and you can lose money — always do your own research.