{"id":205851,"date":"2026-03-30T08:04:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T08:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/once-a-foe-lindsey-graham-is-now-trumps-biggest-iran-war-booster-the-most-pro-war-republican-out-there-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T08:04:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T08:04:49","slug":"once-a-foe-lindsey-graham-is-now-trumps-biggest-iran-war-booster-the-most-pro-war-republican-out-there-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/once-a-foe-lindsey-graham-is-now-trumps-biggest-iran-war-booster-the-most-pro-war-republican-out-there-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Once a foe, Lindsey Graham is now Trump\u2019s biggest Iran war booster: \u2018The most pro-war Republican out there\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Carolina senator has reconciled with the man he once called a \u2018jackass\u2019 and a \u2018bigot\u2019, and is pushing him to expand the war
To sceptics, Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s war in Iran<\/a> is a hubristic blunder that could spiral further out of control and bring catastrophe to the world. To Lindsey Graham, it is a dream come true.
The Republican senator from South Carolina<\/a> spent decades spoiling for a fight with the regime in Tehran. He claimed that its overthrow would give the US president his own \u201cBerlin Wall moment\u201d. Now he is urging further escalation by invoking the bloody battle of Iwo Jima from the second world war<\/a>.
For Graham\u2019s critics, his sway over Trump, and his seemingly insatiable appetite for war at any cost, might make him the most dangerous man in Washington.
\u201cLindsey\u2019s probably the most pro-war Republican out there,\u201d said Joe Walsh<\/a>, a former Republican congressman turned Democrat. \u201cHe\u2019s certainly the most visible. <\/em>We\u2019re talking about a guy who, if he could, would have American troops everywhere on the planet engaged in some sort of a war. He\u2019s a war-hungry dude and he\u2019s got Trump\u2019s ear.\u201d<\/em>
Graham, 70, a retired air force reserve colonel who specialised as a military lawyer, was hostile to Iran<\/a> long before Trump arrived on the political scene. Serving in the House of Representatives in the 1990s, he supported attempts to isolate the country and curb its missile and nuclear programmes.
Elected to the Senate in 2002 as the US prepared for war with Iraq, he frequently warned that Iran was exploiting the conflict to expand its regional influence. He opposed the nuclear agreement negotiated under Barack Obama and in 2015 urged the US to act pre-emptively<\/a> to ensure that Iran\u2019s \u201cair force, their navy and their army is a shell of its former self\u201d.
This muscular approach appeared at odds with Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d instincts, which were suspicious of overseas interventions. It was far from the only difference between the two men. Graham, who periodically worked across the aisle with Democrats, fiercely opposed Trump\u2019s hostile takeover of the Republican party in 2016.
He posted on Twitter:<\/a> \u201cIf we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed \u2026 and we will deserve it.\u201d He also dismissed Trump as a \u201cjackass\u201d, \u201ca race-baiting bigot\u201d and \u201cthe most flawed nominee in the history of the Republican party\u201d. Trump retorted that the South Carolina senator was an \u201cidiot\u201d and a \u201clightweight\u201d.
But when it became clear that Trump was unstoppable, Graham fell into line. He was flattered<\/a> to be invited to fly on the Marine One helicopter, regularly played golf with the president, and became a valued interlocutor between the White House and Congress. In 2018 he was an outspoken defender of Trump\u2019s embattled nominee for the supreme court, Brett Kavanaugh.
That same year witnessed the death of John McCain, a close friend of Graham\u2019s and a bitter rival of Trump. Reed Galen<\/a>, who was deputy campaign manager for McCain\u2019s presidential campaign, believes this moment was pivotal. \u201cHe\u2019s always needed a north star and until John McCain died, it was John McCain,\u201d Galen said.
\u201cI\u2019ve always gotten the sense, having worked for Senator McCain, that after Senator McCain died Graham was searching for who the next star was he was going to hitch his wagon to, and it\u2019s been Trump.\u201d
Graham has been a loyal foot soldier ever since. Except once. After Trump\u2019s supporters rioted at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 in an effort to overturn his election defeat, Graham delivered an impassioned speech<\/a> on the Senate floor: \u201cTrump and I, we\u2019ve had a hell of a journey \u2013 I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he\u2019s been a consequential president but today, first thing you\u2019ll see. All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.\u201d
But when seven Republican senators subsequently voted to impeach Trump for \u201cincitement of insurrection\u201d, Graham was not among them. And when the 2024 presidential election came around, he was back on the Trump train. On the golf course, Fox News and elsewhere, he got to work persuading Trump that dealing with Iran could be a vital part of his second-term legacy.
Graham told Politico<\/a> recently: \u201cWe were thinking about this early, early on about how Iran is a spoiler for expanding the Abraham accords and stability in the Mideast. I told him before he took office \u2026 if you can collapse this terrorist regime, that\u2019s Berlin Wall stuff.\u201d
This led to a months-long dialogue and a final burst of lobbying \u201cin the last several weeks\u201d, Graham told Politico, with the pair discussing Iran fewer than 48 hours before the war began. Finally, after decades of striving, Graham\u2019s prize was within reach.
Jon Hoffman, a research fellow in defence and foreign policy with the Cato Institute, a libertarian-leaning thinktank in Washington, told the Associated Press<\/a>: \u201cYou\u2019re seeing essentially a child on Christmas morning who has gotten everything that he\u2019s ever dreamed of. And that\u2019s not best for the country, obviously, but it\u2019s best for Lindsey Graham\u2019s ideology.\u201d
But Graham has no intention of resting on his laurels. He continues to try shaping the war as he sees fit. On 8 March he used X<\/a> to express Washington\u2019s dismay at ally Israel for overreaching by striking 30 Iranian fuel depots, urging Tel Aviv to \u201cplease be cautious about what targets you select\u201d lest it cripple Iran\u2019s chance to rebuild.
And even as the war drags on longer than many expected, with Iran blockading the crucial strait of Hormuz, Graham wants more. On Fox News last Sunday he advocated for US marines to seize Kharg Island, Iran\u2019s main oil export hub, lying about 20 miles off the coast of the mainland. He said: \u201cWe did Iwo Jima, we can do this.\u201d
Iwo Jima is famous for a photo of marines raising the US flag but was also marked by fierce fighting<\/a> over 36 days on the heavily fortified Japanese island where nearly 7,000 marines and sailors died, with roughly 20,000 wounded, while more than 18,000 Japanese soldiers died.
Graham\u2019s comments exposed fractures in his own party. Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina posted on X<\/a>: \u201cLindsey Graham needs to be removed from the Situation Room. I don\u2019t want to hear one word from a guy with no kids, desperately sending our sons and daughters into war on the ground in Iran.\u201d
But while some loud \u201cMake America great again\u201d (Maga) voters have decried the Iran intervention, nine in 10 Maga-aligned Republicans still support the war, according to an NBC News poll<\/a>. Graham also provides reassurance to a Republican establishment that feared Trump would no longer project US power against its enemies.
John Bolton, a national security adviser during Trump\u2019s first term, said: \u201cHe is an important voice. If our objective is to overthrow the regime then I think Lindsey\u2019s probably urging Trump in that direction. I think it\u2019s a good thing.\u201d
Voters will have their say. In a South Carolina Senate primary election in June, Graham must see off a challenge from Paul Dans, the former director of Project 2025, who has branded him<\/a> \u201cessentially anti-Maga\u201d, then in November take on a Democratic candidate sure to be galvanised by public anger at Trump.
Tara Setmayer<\/a>, a former Republican communications director who now runs the Seneca Project political action committee, said: \u201cLindsey Graham has been a warmonger for the majority of his career.
\u201cHe is someone who seemingly has no reservations sending our men and women into battle where it suits his political desires. His display \u2013 he\u2019s virtually foaming at the mouth to send our troops into harm\u2019s way \u2013 is grotesque and I hope that he pays a political price for that in South Carolina<\/a> as he is up for re-election.\u201d
Antjuan Seawright<\/a>, a Democratic strategist based in South Carolina, added: \u201cNo one believes that we should be at war, including conservatives who campaigned with Donald Trump and his \u2018America First\u2019 agenda. Lindsey Graham is doing his best audition for an audience of one, and that\u2019s Donald Trump.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Carolina senator has reconciled with the man he once called a \u2018jackass\u2019 and a \u2018bigot\u2019, and is pushing him to expand the warTo sceptics, Donald Trump\u2019s war in Iran is a hubristic blunder that could spiral further out of control and bring catastrophe to the world. To Lindsey Graham, it is a dream come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-205851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}