<p>As announced Friday afternoon, President Trump has agreed to sign the Russia sanctions bill after adding a few changes of his own. ;</p>
<p>The bill, announced last week, was created by a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House and the Senate. It passed the Senate 98-2 on Thursday and passed the House 419-3 on Tuesday. Such strong votes make a Trump veto virtually impossible. ;</p>
<p>It would have been &ldquo;foolhardy&rdquo; for the Trump Administration to veto the bill, explains former Obama State Department official Edward Fishman. &ldquo;Congress would have overridden the veto, and all it will do is fuel the fire of the Russian scandal in Washington.&#8221;</p>
<p>As I wrote in a previous article, the bill imposes penalties on Iran and North Korea as well as Russia and includes measures that prevent Trump from single-handedly deciding to suspend or end sanctions on Russia. ;</p>
<p>Russia has responded to the news by announcing it will be expelling a handful of American diplomats and repossessing real estate currently being used by the American mission in Moscow. Russia Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has warned of &ldquo;potentially destructive consequences.&#8221;</p>
<p>European officials are also concerned by the bill, arguing that it ;gives Trump the ability to ban investments in European energy projects tied to Russia. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The US bill could have unintended unilateral effects that impact the EU&rsquo;s energy interests,&rdquo; EU President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday. &ldquo;New sanctions should always be coordinated between allies.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Secretary of Rex Tillerson says Moscow should view the bill as a demand for Russia to &ldquo;take steps to improve relations with the United States.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We hope that there will be cooperation between our two countries on major global issues and these sanctions will no longer be necessary,&#8221; said Tillerson. ;</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the new sanctions bill will erode the friendly relationship between Trump and Putin and make it that much harder for us to make any sort of deal with Russia. ;</p>
<p><strong>Author&rsquo;s Note:</strong> This bill essentially ties Trump&#8217;s hands in future dealings with Putin. ;</p>
<p>This is especially disturbing since we all know the interference in our elections by the Russians was minimal and had no effect. The &ldquo;Russia collusion&rdquo; story was a media invention based on lies from the Hillary campaign. ;</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> The Republican Congress and Trump have been forced into this by the liberal media. I&#8217;m a bit surprised that Trump went along with it, but he has more important things going on.</p>