Tag: lindsey graham

Sen. Graham Urges Trump to Renew US Strikes on Iran

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Sunday called on President Donald Trump to renew U.S. military strikes on Iran, arguing that a stalled ceasefire and a closed Strait of Hormuz are strengthening Tehran while inflicting economic pain at home.

“I think the status quo is hurting us all,” Graham told NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” framing continued military pressure, not negotiation, as the faster route to ending the war.

Graham’s appeal landed at a stalemate.

U.S.-Iran talks, mediated by Pakistan, have been suspended since both sides rejected each other’s latest proposals, and no permanent peace deal has been reached since the two countries announced a ceasefire last month.

Graham said the impasse only benefits Tehran.

“The longer the [Strait of Hormuz] is closed, the more we try to pursue a deal that never happens, the stronger Iran gets,” he said.

The senator, a leading proponent of Trump’s military campaign, urged the president to “weaken them further.”

He credited the administration’s strikes as “amazing, militarily.” But, he said, “there’s more targets to be had.”

Graham added that nothing in the conflict so far suggests Iran’s leadership has abandoned what he called the regime’s goal “to terrorize the world, destroy Israel, come after us.”

The closed strait, which before the war carried more than a fifth of the world’s energy supply, has driven oil prices rising higher since the conflict began on Feb. 28.

As of Friday, the average U.S. price of unleaded gas was above $4.50 a gallon, up 51% since the war started.

Graham argued that pressure would ease with force, telling moderator Kristen Welker, “Gas prices will come down when you put Iran in a box.”

Tehran has signaled little appetite for compromise.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that Iran has “no trust” in the U.S. and would negotiate only if Washington is serious, citing “contradictory messages” from American officials.

The diplomatic freeze coincided with Trump’s return from a multiday summit in China, where he met President Xi Jinping.

Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier he had not asked Beijing for help on Iran. “If he wants to help, that’s great, but we don’t need help,” Trump said, adding that accepting help invites obligations in return.

The dispute carries domestic political stakes.

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Iran war ‘likely’ to restart, senior Tehran official warns after Trump says US might be ‘better off’ without deal

The war between the US and Iran is “likely” to restart, a senior Iranian official predicted on the heels of comments by President Trump that the US might be “better off” without an agreement.

A “renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely,” said Mohammad Jafar Asadi, a high-level officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran wants the US to test its strength, said Ali Rafiei Atani, an IRGC commander in Qazvin province.

“We hope America makes a mistake and tests its power on the ground as well. It was defeated at sea and in the air, and we would like it to test itself on the ground too,” claiming the conflict had “shattered America’s hollow power.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an Iran hawk and a prominent Trump ally, is calling on the president to “finish the job” with more strikes if Tehran continues to be “provocative.”

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Lindsey Graham on Iran’s Kharg Island: ‘We Did Iwo Jima. We Can Do This.’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday called for the US to capture Iran’s Kharg Island, where most of the country’s oil exports pass, comparing the potential operation to the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

“Here’s what I’d tell President Trump: Keep it up for a few more weeks, take Kharg Island … control that island. Let this regime die on the vine,” Graham said in an appearance on Fox News.

When pressed on the fact that US troops involved in the operation would face significant missile and drone attacks, Graham said, “I’m sort of tired of all this armchair quarterbacking. This has been an amazing military operation — God bless the fallen.”

The South Carolina senator said that he “trusted the Marines” and noted that two Marine Expeditionary Units are heading to the region. “We did Iwo Jima. We can do this,” Graham said. “My money is always on the Marines. I don’t know if you take the island or you blockade the island, but I know this: the day we control that island, this regime, this terrorist regime, will die on the vine.”

The Battle of Iwo Jima is known as one of the most brutal battles in World War II, involving US troops, and resulted in about 26,000 US casualties, including more than 6,000 deaths. On the Japanese side, more than 18,000 defenders of the island were killed.

Graham’s comments come after NBC News reported that President Trump is considering whether to send thousands of troops into Iran for potential operations aimed at opening up the Strait of Hormuz. The report said ground operations could involve attempts to seize control of Iranian ports, small islands, or oil infrastructure.

Another option being considered is launching a raid to capture Iran’s stockpile of uranium that’s enriched at the 60% level, though it’s believed to be buried under rubble following the June 2025 US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

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Lindsay Graham Met With Israeli Intelligence In Attempt To Lobby Trump On War With Iran

Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham made multiple trips to Israel in recent weeks to gather ammunition for his push to get President Trump to strike Iran, sitting down with members of the country’s spy agency along the way.

“They’ll tell me things our own government won’t tell me,” Graham told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The South Carolina Republican also admitted to advising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the best way to pitch Trump on military action, according to the same report. Netanyahu ultimately presented intelligence to the president that helped convince him to green-light the operation, WSJ reported.

Israel Hayom, an Israeli outlet, confirmed the tight relationship between Graham and Netanyahu, describing the senator as one of four central figures behind the war. The outlet reported that Graham flew back to Mar-a-Lago from his Middle East tour carrying word that Gulf states wanted the U.S. to act, a message that clashed with what was being reported publicly at the time.

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US will ‘make a ton of money’ from Iran war – senator

The US will control almost a third of the world’s oil and make record profits if it succeeds in toppling the Iranian government, hawkish Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News on Sunday.

Graham made the comments as global oil prices surged past $100 per barrel, which US President Donald Trump dismissed as “a very small price to pay” for the US-Israeli war against Iran, which was launched on February 28.

Graham described the cost of the attacks as the “best money ever spent,” arguing that the purpose is to prevent the country from developing nuclear weapons – which Iran has denied that it intends to do, insisting that its nuclear program is peaceful.

“When this regime goes down, we’re going to have a new Middle East, we are going to make a ton of money. Nobody will threaten the Strait of Hormuz again,” Graham said, adding that the US will install a “friendly” government in Tehran.

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‘Cuba’s Next,’ Says Lindsey Graham as Illegal Trump-Israel War on Iran Kills Hundreds

As American and Israeli bombs kill hundreds of Iranians – reportedly including at least 180 students and others at a girl’s school in Minab – Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that President Donald Trump is “on a roll” and that Cuba is the next nation in the US regime change crosshairs.

In an interview on Fox News, Graham (R-SC) said prematurely that “Trump finished the job” that former President Ronald Reagan “failed to do,” namely, destroy Iran’s Islamist government after the overthrow of a brutal US-backed monarchy in 1979. “I am a big admirer of Ronald Reagan but I’m here to tell you that Donald Trump, in my opinion, is the gold standard for Republicans, maybe any president, when it comes to foreign policy.”

“Maduro – everybody talked about him, well, Donald Trump’s got him in jail,” Graham said of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was abducted along with his wife two months by invading US forces.

“Cuba’s next. They’re gonna fall,” Graham said of the revolutionary government in Havana that’s outlasted a dozen American presidents, despite decades of US-led assassination attempts, sabotage, and subversion. “This communist dictatorship in Cuba, their days are numbered.”

The remarks by Graham – who previously berated Trump as a “jackass,” “nut job,” and “loser” unfit to be commander-in-chief – come amid reporting that Trump is feeling buoyed by what he views as successful attacks on Iran and Venezuela.

“The president is feeling like, ‘I’m on a roll,’ like, ‘This is working,’” one unnamed Trump administration official told the Atlantic‘s Vivian Salama over the weekend.

This, from a president who said he deplored regime change and vowed “no new wars” while running for reelection.

A day before launching the US-Israeli war of choice against Iran, Trump floated what he described as a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, prompting vehement condemnation from Havana. Cuba is already suffering under decades of US sanctions that have devastated the socialist nation’s economy and the well-being of its people.

In January, Trump issued an executive order baselessly declaring that Cuba poses “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security and tightening the blockade to further starve the island of fuel.

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Senators Talk Digital Freedom for Iran While Expanding Surveillance at Home

Three US senators want federal funding to help Iranians bypass censorship and access VPNs. The same three senators have spent years supporting the surveillance systems that track Americans online.

We obtained a copy of their letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio for you here.

Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), James Lankford (R-OK), and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) are backing funding for anti-censorship technology and virtual private networks abroad.

Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), whose privacy record is largely clean, is also supporting the effort. The bipartisan coalition wants to help people circumvent government internet controls. Just not the American government’s internet controls.

Graham’s voting record reads like a blueprint for the surveillance state he claims to oppose overseas. He voted for the Patriot Act in 2001 and has supported every major expansion since. When Section 702 of FISA came up for reauthorization, Graham backed it. When Congress considered making Section 702 permanent in 2017 with no sunset clauses and no congressional review, Graham backed that too.

His encryption stance is just as consistent. Graham co-sponsored the EARN IT Act in 2020, which would pressure platforms to weaken encryption to avoid liability.

He also backed the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data (LAED) Act, a bill that would require companies to build backdoors into their security systems. VPNs work because of encryption. Graham has spent years trying to break it.

He’s also pushed to repeal Section 230 protections and supported requiring government licenses for companies offering AI tools. When surveillance mechanisms he championed caught his own communications, Graham complained. Privacy for senators. Mass surveillance for everyone else.

Lankford introduced the Free Speech Fairness Act, which removed restrictions on political speech by religious and nonprofit organizations. That same senator has backed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which will likely require platforms to implement age verification and give regulators the power to pressure companies into removing content.

He called for Section 230 to be “ripped up” and backed a national strategy against antisemitism that includes government coordination on speech. When Edward Snowden revealed the scope of NSA surveillance, Lankford branded him a traitor for telling the public what their government was doing.

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US Lawmakers Shmooze with Zelensky at Munich Security Conference – After Voting for Partial Shutdown of DHS at Home

Democrats voted this past week for a partial shutdown of government. The open-borders party refused to fund DHS. After the announcement was made several of these lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, took a plane to the annual Munich Security Conference.

So, the lawmakers can’t agree to fund DHS and our borders, but they had time to travel to Munich for the annual security conference.

If these men and women really wanted security they would have funded our Department of Homeland Security.

During their trip to Munich several US politicians met with Volodymyr Zelensky. He attended the conference to beg for more cash to fight his losing war against Russia.

Of course, Lindsey Graham was right in the mix. There’s no way he was going to miss out on some good war talk.

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Lindsey Graham Falls Prey to the Surveillance Monster He Championed

Some people find religion after a brush with mortality. Lindsey Graham found the Fourth Amendment after a brush with Jack Smith.

The senator from South Carolina has spent the past two decades helping build the modern surveillance state, and now he’s furious that it turned its cold electronic eye on him.

Federal prosecutors secretly subpoenaed his phone records without his knowledge as part of Special Counsel Smith’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s alleged role in the events of January 6.

Graham says it’s an outrage, a scandal. He’s demanding the impeachment of the federal judge who approved it and threatening to sue someone, though he hasn’t worked out who, for “tens of millions of dollars.”

It’s the kind of melodrama that comes easily to a man who’s never been shy about using the power of the state when it suits him.

This story started last month when FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that phone records of eight Republican senators, including Graham’s, were pulled as part of Smith’s “Arctic Frost” probe.

The data covered January 4 to 7, 2021, and came with gag orders preventing telecom companies from telling the targets they were under the microscope.

“They spied on my phone records as a senator and a private citizen,” Graham complained on Fox News. “I’m sick of it.”

He’s not wrong to be angry. But there’s something deeply comic about Graham discovering his inner civil libertarian only after the dragnet landed on his number.

Graham has been one of the most reliable defenders of the surveillance architecture that is now bothering him.

In 2001, as a House member, he voted for the Patriot Act, the law that kicked open the door for mass data collection. When Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA was collecting Americans’ phone records by the millions, Graham didn’t seem alarmed.

“I’m a Verizon customer. It doesn’t bother me one bit for the NSA to have my phone number,” he famously said. “I’m glad the NSA is trying to find out what the terrorists are up to overseas and in our country.”

He later voted to codify those surveillance powers into Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 2008 and backed every major reauthorization since.

For most of his career, Graham treated Section 702 like a sacred text.

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Senator Graham Calls For Disarming Hezbollah By Military Force

Hawkish Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said “it’s time for Hezbollah to go” – and he’s willing to use military force to do it.

“They are trained by Iran, they are loyal to Iran, and we’re looking for military power in Lebanon to be loyal to the Lebanese people and a good partner to the region,” Graham, who is the Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said at a press conference in Tel Aviv. 

He made the comments soon after meeting with both Lebanese and Israeli officials. The Trump administration has been heavily pressuring the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, even after it was greatly weakened after Israel took out its top leadership, including the slain longtime Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, last year.

Graham declared: “If we cannot reach a peaceful disarmament solution for Hezbollah, then we need to look at Plan B. Plan B is disarming Hezbollah by military force.”

“Also, there is a decision made to eliminate UNIFIL as a U.N. peace keeping organization in the next 15 months. Now that presents an opportunity for the Lebanese Armed Forces to replace a very ineffective UNIFIL and prove to not only the Lebanese people, but Israel and others, that Lebanon has a capability it did not possess before,” the US senator went on to say.

He didn’t specify whether he envisions that American troops could be involved in such a military intervention – and he likely has foremost in his mind the Israelis and Lebanese taking action – but he’s one who has never shied away from using American soldiers in overseas conflicts.

US envoy to the region Tom Barrack had led the American delegation that visited Beirut this week, and there was plenty of controversy unleashed by the visit, and specifically when he chastised the Lebanese over being ‘civilized’ and not ‘animalistic’…

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