The Republican senator steadfastly refused to abandon Ukraine, and in fact died just hours after returning from Kiev, his 10th visit to the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion began.
Prime Minister Netanyahu remembers Lindsey Graham as ‘great friend’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends Weekend” and expressed his condolences over the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, saying that Israel had lost a dear friend.
Some Iranians nickname him “Uncle Lindsay” because of his consistent support for the opposition to the Islamic Republic.
He never wavered in his support for Israel during the military operation in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led offensive on October 7, 2023, despite widespread international condemnation over the humanitarian toll.
The Republican senator from South Carolina steadfastly refused to abandon Ukraine, and in fact died just hours after returning from Kiev, his 10th visit to the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion began.
Lindsey Graham, who died of heart disease on July 11 at the age of 71, was one of the Republican Party’s most prominent hawks on foreign policy. During more than two decades in Congress, he defended U.S. military intervention, sanctions, and alliances worldwide, even as President Donald Trump’s commitment wavered.
Some experts said it robbed Washington of one of its most staunch internationalists at a time when a strong U.S. role abroad has become obsolete not only in the Trump White House but also in some lawmakers on both sides. But Trump’s death is unlikely to immediately change the overall direction of U.S. foreign policy, whether toward China, Iran, Israel, or other regions where the internationalist Republican Party and the more nationalist “America First” faction of the party are vying for policy supremacy during President Trump’s second term.
“Whether you loved him or hated him, no one disputes that Lindsey Graham had significant influence on virtually every issue of public foreign policy. This is especially true of Trump, who genuinely seems to care about Graham’s views and often relied on Graham to sell his decisions on Capitol Hill,” said Daniel DePetris, a researcher at Defense Priorities, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that supports U.S. military restraint.
“But Mr. Graham is not the only influential foreign policy hawk in Washington during the Trump administration. There is no shortage of such hawks. His death will not leave a vacuum, as others will quickly take his place and lobby for similar policies, from continuing the war against Iran to maintaining an aggressive posture in Latin America.”
Mr. DePetris added that Mr. Trump has become “essentially one of the hawks.” He pointed out that President Trump attacked Venezuela and detained the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, for holding him responsible for U.S. drug trafficking. President Trump has launched a war alongside Israel over Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. For months, he has threatened to intervene militarily in Cuba unless the country makes fundamental economic and political changes.
Graham was the cheerleader for both of these efforts, as well as for the next possible one in Cuba.
Barbara Slavin, a research fellow at the Stimson Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that analyzes U.S. foreign policy, compared Graham to John Bolton, a foreign policy hawk among hawks who has long advocated regime change and pre-emptive military action against U.S. enemies such as Iran and North Korea.
Bolton served as national security adviser during Trump’s first term in 2018 and 2019, but was later fired over various policy disagreements related to foreign engagements. After leaving the White House, he became a fierce critic of Trump, accusing him of having “no grand strategy.” (Bolton recently pleaded guilty to charges of mishandling classified national security information as part of a memo he compiled for a book about President Trump’s White House.)
Mr. Slavin said that Mr. Graham, like Mr. Bolton, was “a consistent hawk on Iran and has always pushed for sanctions and military force. Neither has been successful, but that hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm.” He added that he did not believe Graham’s death would result in a major change in Trump’s behavior abroad, “given the current incoherence of U.S. policy.”
“He’s throwing us into chaos, but like President Trump, he has no idea how to get us out,” she said, referring to the Iran war. A series of back-and-forth attacks have continued since the two countries agreed to a ceasefire in April and signed a memorandum of understanding in June aimed at a permanent end to the fighting.
Early in his parliamentary career, Mr. Graham was a vocal supporter of U.S. military action against Iraq following the attacks on September 11, 2001. He strongly opposed the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021, calling it a “sad and dangerous event” for U.S. national security.
“Jihadists around the world are celebrating,” he added.
Lindsey Graham and Ukraine
Still, Mr. Graham remained loud and forceful on foreign policy and publicly advocated cooperation with allies, particularly in Ukraine. The day before his death, he joined a bipartisan group of senators to announce the latest sanctions package targeting Russia’s oil industry, hoping that Trump would eventually support it. The president and executive branch, not individual senators, ultimately control the direction of U.S. foreign policy.
For this and other efforts to pursue America’s historic commitment to NATO and the transatlantic friendship, Graham was widely praised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he was in a “state of shock” at his death.
After the US government cut off some military aid to Israel in May 2024 due to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Graham pressed then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to resume aid, saying Israel should receive “what it needs to fight the war.” He described the danger facing Israel as “Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids.”
The pause didn’t last long.
“Senator Lindsey Graham was a cornerstone of the transatlantic partnership,” Peter Beyer, a conservative German lawmaker and member of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said in a WhatsApp message. “A reliable partner for Germany and Europe. Ukraine can always count on him.”
Graham appears to have been popular and respected in foreign policy circles.
“He forged a close relationship with President Trump, providing him with critical support and advice, offsetting the naive advice of influential Republican circles to cut off all U.S. aid to Ukraine and weaken America’s ties to NATO,” former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst said in a memorial posted on the website of the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Kay Bailey Hutchison, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said, “I have accompanied foreign political and military leaders on many Congressional visits, where they have always been effective in communicating U.S. policy.” “He championed NATO, knowing that having strong alliances expands and strengthens American leadership.”
Nonetheless, Mr. Graham has been less vocal about other areas of Trump’s foreign policy that have caused concern and confusion among traditional U.S. allies. For example, he didn’t say much about Trump’s repeated hints that he might use the U.S. military to occupy Greenland, or his regular praise for authoritarian leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin. Graham has long talked about the importance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in countering adversaries such as China and Russia.
When Trump began dismantling USAID, Graham remained largely silent.
Phillips O’Brien, an American military historian at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, concluded in an analysis of Graham’s words and actions regarding Ukraine on July 13 that Graham never used his position in the Senate over the past few years to promote aid to Ukraine or to explicitly support Ukraine beyond what Trump authorized.
Kim Hjelmgaard is an investigative journalist who covers global stories for USA TODAY, from living rooms to war zones. X: Follow him at @khjelmgaard
