{"id":210996,"date":"2026-05-18T05:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T05:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/sen-lindsey-graham-says-status-quo-in-the-strait-of-hormuz-is-hurting-us-all-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T05:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T05:28:14","slug":"sen-lindsey-graham-says-status-quo-in-the-strait-of-hormuz-is-hurting-us-all-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/sen-lindsey-graham-says-status-quo-in-the-strait-of-hormuz-is-hurting-us-all-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Lindsey Graham says status quo in the Strait of Hormuz is \u2018hurting us all\u2019 – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Sunday called for more U.S. military action in Iran.
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\u201cI think the status quo is hurting us all. The longer the [Strait of Hormuz] is closed, the more we try to pursue a deal that never happens, the stronger Iran gets,\u201d Graham told NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d
Graham added that so far in the Iran conflict, \u201cthere\u2019s nothing to suggest that the people in charge now are any different in terms of the regime\u2019s goal to terrorize the world, destroy Israel, come after us.\u201d
He called on President Donald Trump to \u201cweaken them further.\u201d
\u201cWhat President Trump has done has been amazing militarily, but there\u2019s more targets to be had, and there\u2019s things we can do to hurt [Iran],\u201d the South Carolina senator said.
Graham\u2019s comments come amid a pause in negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, which have not yet led to a deal to end the war.
And the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial maritime passageway for oil tankers, has sent global oil prices soaring, raising gas prices for Americans, too. The average price of unleaded gas in the U.S. is up 51%<\/a> since the U.S. first took military action against Iran more than two months ago.
\u201cHere\u2019s the good news,\u201d Graham told \u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Kristen Welker. \u201cGas prices will come down when you put Iran in a box.\u201d
Iran\u2019s foreign minister said Friday that the nation\u2019s leaders have \u201cno trust<\/a>\u201d in American negotiators.
His comments came the same day Trump returned to the U.S. from a trip to China, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a multiday summit.
The U.S. president told Fox News\u2019 Bret Baier that he didn\u2019t ask Chinese leaders for \u201chelp\u201d regarding Iran.
\u201c[Xi] agrees with me that he wants to see it end. He\u2019d like to see it end. He would like to help,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIf he wants help, that\u2019s great, but we don\u2019t need help. And you know the problem with help: When somebody helps you, they always want something on the other side. That\u2019s the way help works.\u201d
The president also faced criticism last week for saying that he\u2019s considering Americans\u2019 financial situations \u201cnot even a little bit<\/a>\u201d when negotiating an end to the Iran war. The comments sparked fears among Republicans over the upcoming midterm elections.
Graham dismissed these concerns about the midterms, telling Welker, \u201cIt\u2019s worth losing my job. If I had to give my job up to make sure Iran would never have a nuclear weapon, I would do it.\u201d
The senator\u2019s comments echoed what Trump told Baier last week, saying, \u201cI\u2019m not going to let the election determine what\u2019s going to happen with respect to Iran, because they cannot have a nuclear weapon.\u201d
The president also said he knew his actions in Iran would \u201cscrew up\u201d polling numbers for Republicans running for re-election in the midterms, as some GOP lawmakers grapple with how closely they should align with Trump<\/a> on the campaign trail.
\u201cI said to my people, \u2018I hate to do this to you, but I\u2019m going to screw up your numbers for a little while, because we have to stop the nuclear weapon stuff with Iran, because they\u2019re nuts,\u2019\u201d Trump told Baier last week.
Alexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeSen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Sunday called for more U.S. military action in Iran.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.\u201cI think the status quo is hurting us all. The longer the [Strait of Hormuz] is closed, the more we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":210997,"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-210996","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\/210996","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=210996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}