Lindsey Graham‘s private reaction to the Iran war was just as dramatic as you’d expect. New documentary footage captures the late senator drawing bold historical comparisons between today’s leaders, including Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, and World War II icons.
The late senator likened Donald Trump and Netanyahu to Roosevelt and Churchill while discussing Iran
Recently surfaced documentary footage captures the late Sen. Lindsey Graham enthusiastically supporting the war in Iran. The footage, filmed by documentarian Alex Holder, shows Graham drawing parallels between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu and World War II leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Holder recorded Graham for hundreds of hours beginning in 2023. The clips show the South Carolina Republican celebrating the first wave of American-Israeli strikes against Iran. “We’ve done it,” Graham said while laughing in his office early in the conflict. “I almost cried. I mean, how long have we been pushing this?” he added.
The senator, who passed away earlier this month from an aortic dissection, revealed he had spoken with Donald Trump that same morning. “He’s jacked. He said, ‘Best thing I’ve ever done.’ He loves blowing stuff up,” Graham stated. He had spent years calling for military confrontation with Tehran.
Graham also praised Trump’s wartime conduct. “President Trump, when he gets into the zone, he listens, he asks good questions, no tweeting,” he noted. “No drama, he’s been a great wartime president,” Graham added. He went further with the historical parallel. “Trump and Bibi are like Roosevelt and Churchill. I mean, they’re the right two guys to confront this evil,” he explained.
In early March, Graham predicted Iran’s government would “start losing control of some cities” within weeks. That outcome never materialized. He also outlined a strategy to Jake Sullivan, the former national security adviser. “What we’re trying to do is just get a few cities to fall in the next month,” Graham explained, according to CNN footage.
In a Sunday CNN appearance, Holder called Graham’s influence on Trump “consequential” in launching the conflict. “He really was pushing for this war. And when the bombs started falling, you can see how happy he was,” Holder told anchor Manu Raju.
Originally reported by Vritti Johar for Mandatory.
