AP News53%
Lindsey Graham remembered for a vision of American foreign policy that’s fading in Washington 76%
By GEIR MOULSON73% NICHOLAS RICCARDI73%
7/12/2026, 9:20:07 AM
Topics: Lindsey Graham, US Foreign Policy, International Relations, Middle East Conflict, Ukraine War
Keywords: Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump, Ukraine, Israel, NATO, Iran War, Middle East, Mideast Wars, Government Policy, Benjamin Netanyahu, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Barack Obama, Mark Rutte, District Of Columbia, Matthew Kroenig, Military And Defense, Jens Stoltenberg, Vladimir Putin, Sanctions And Embargoes, Ukraine Government, Dan Baer, Tucker Carlson, Paul Foldi, Iran, Lloyd Austin, Politics, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, United States Government, International Agreements, U S Republican Party, War And Unrest
BS Summary: This article contains 28 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Halo Effect, and Confirmation Bias, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 66.1% saturation with 463 hits. Analysis detected 2,431 faulty-reasoning hits from 700 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 67.7% and a BS Rank of 76% (5,186 of 21,166 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 75.50% of the article peer group.
For decades Lindsey Graham traveled the globe selling a vision of the United States as a nation willing to use its military might to protect democracies around the world, even as his party was taken over by a president openly skeptical of that worldview.
Graham — who died unexpectedly at 71 on Saturday night — was a rare bridge between President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy and the traditional Washington consensus prioritizing alliances with Europe and Israel, one falling out of favor with many in both political parties.
With that idea of the U.S., Graham remained a staunch defender of Ukraine to the end, even as Trump’s commitment wavered.
Graham represented South Carolina in the House and Senate for more than three decades.
He died after what a preliminary report from the Washington, D.C., medical examiner’s office said was a tear in his aorta.
The senator’s death triggered praise from leaders and diplomats around the world and condemnation from Iran and other countries where he’d agitated for military action.
“In an increasingly isolationist America, Sen.
Graham was one of the last titans of the Senate who favored a muscular and engaged U.S. foreign policy,” said Paul Foldi, a former diplomat and top Republican staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“He is irreplaceable.”
Trump, whom Graham opposed, then embraced, won the White House partly by harnessing voters’ disgust with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — both of which were championed by Graham’s wing of the Republican Party.
Matthew Kroenig, a vice president at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., said Graham once told him there was no point in trying to defy Trump.
“As a good politician, he recognized Trump commanded the Republican Party and the Republican base and if you tried to work against him you’d get nothing done,” Kroenig said.
He argued Graham’s approach has paid off in Trump’s second term as the president hasn’t abandoned Ukraine while also green lighting interventions in Iran and Venezuela that the senator advocated.
“Look at Trump’s foreign policy — it’s more of a Lindsey Graham foreign policy than a Tucker Carlson foreign policy,” Kroenig said, referring to the conservative commentator who is a prominent opponent of American intervention overseas.
Iranian state television announced Graham’s death during a live broadcast in openly hostile terms.
“I congratulate the great nation of Iran on Lindsey Graham, the warmongering and anti-Iranian U.S. senator, having gone to hell,” the anchor said.
While Graham was admired in Israel, his position toward the war in Gaza in particular angered many in the Middle East, including U.S. allies who advocated a diplomatic solution.
He was outspoken in supporting Israel’s devastating military operations in Gaza after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants.
In May 2024, after Washington paused some military aid to Israel, Graham urged then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to “give Israel what they need to fight the war.”
He likened the threat Israel faced to “Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids.”
He posted on social media later that year that “the Palestinians in Gaza are the most radicalized population on the planet who are taught to hate Jews from birth.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him “a great friend of Israel” and “a cherished friend of mine.”
Netanyahu said Graham understood that the security of Israel and the United States are inseparable and the prime minister said that Graham devoted his life to defending America, strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance and standing up for the free world.
“Israel has lost one of its greatest friends.
America has lost a great patriot.
I have lost a beloved friend,” Netanyahu said.
But the Gaza war has also helped trigger a shift against Israel among American voters, with 58% of Democrats saying in a recent AP-NORC poll that the U.S. gives Israelis too much support.
In addition, younger Republicans are more likely than their older counterparts to say the U.S. is too supportive of Israelis, raising the possibility of a generational shift.
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Riccardi reported from Denver, Colorado.
Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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