{"id":587,"date":"2026-07-15T21:41:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=587"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:41:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:41:33","slug":"no-graham-heir-apparent-to-help-shape-trumps-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=587","title":{"rendered":"No Graham heir apparent to help shape Trump\u2019s foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Some Senate Republicans and Democrats actually agree on one thing: It could take years for another lawmaker to become as big of a voice in any president\u2019s ear on foreign policy as Lindsey Graham was in Donald Trump\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Read more GOP budget blueprint targets Iran war, farm aid and elections<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, as Trump on Wednesday delivered his first major national security remarks since his informal adviser\u2019s sudden death, some senators wondered aloud whether anyone could truly fill the void created by the South Carolina Republican\u2019s unexpected passing.<\/p>\n

Graham used long weekends and recesses to jet around the world, meeting privately and developing relationships with prime ministers and presidents, defense and foreign ministers, parliament members and ambassadors. His Rolodex impressed Trump, and helped him gain influence with the 45th and 47th diplomat in chief, senators said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Lindsey will be hard to replace. Lindsey had spent an unbelievable amount of time traveling the world and building relationships,\u201d Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican who serves on the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, said Tuesday. \u201cA lot of us will have relationships, but nobody\u2019s going to have all the relationships Lindsey had. It\u2019s going to take a long time for anybody to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who is slated to take over the Budget Committee that Graham had chaired, said the void left by his death showed \u201chow hard he worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly do not want to put that time and effort into it. I mean, Lindsey and John McCain, those were two unique individuals who did that, who built those relationships,\u201d Johnson added, referring to the late Arizona GOP senator. \u201cThat\u2019s why he is irreplaceable.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, Trump on Monday dubbed his late \u201cfriend\u201d a \u201ctotal workaholic politician,\u201d before later noting Graham\u2019s global reach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost a great man,\u201d Trump told Fox News. \u201cAnd you know who really lost? Israel, Ukraine, a lot of countries that he really fought for and they lost somebody who was very special. But the real loser was the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who worked closely with Graham on a Russia sanctions bill that Trump endorsed on Tuesday, said, \u201cI think that there are potentially others who can pick up the mantle,\u201d adding: \u201cMy general feeling is that his shoes are pretty much impossible to fill because of his unique personality and drive and interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked which Republican senators he would call if he needed help on a foreign policy matter, Blumenthal pointed to Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, a member of the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee that Graham had also chaired.<\/p>\n

\u2018Better behave\u2019<\/h2>\n

On the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Trump stumbled early in his first week without Graham in his ear, insisting Monday the U.S. would charge a 20 percent fee to a handful of countries for protection traversing the Strait of Hormuz. A day later, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office alongside his Iraqi counterpart, Trump explained why he backed down hours earlier in a social media post.<\/p>\n

Read more Blanche pushes back on \u2018weaponization\u2019 fund worries during hearing<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI was called by different people, different countries \u2014 kings and emirs, and all of the people that we all know and we all love. \u2026 And they said, \u2018We\u2019d love to do it a different way. We\u2019d love to invest in the United States with billions and billions of dollars.\u2019 \u2026 I think it\u2019s actually much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps those calls to talk Trump off the fee-for-protection ledge could have been headed off by an earlier one with Graham. So, too, might have been Trump\u2019s Monday contradiction of Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also White House national security adviser, who had said for months that no country should charge a toll for Hormuz passage. <\/p>\n

By Tuesday, Trump was contradicting himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I like that, actually, because I don\u2019t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for \u2026 the strait or for any other strait relationship, in terms of other sections of the world. I don\u2019t think anybody should be really in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump on Wednesday headlined a conference at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., announcing the administration would invest $10 billion into Pentagon projects involving companies in the key swing state that he said would create more than 4,000 jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The remarks were his first major remarks on national security and foreign policy since Graham died suddenly on Saturday night. At times, he sounded as hawkish about the Islamic Republic as Graham had, at times, during his final months.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the radical cleric in Iran had a nuclear weapon, he would use it just as certainly as Hitler were to use it. He would kill all the Jews, and we\u2019re next,\u201d Graham said in March. \u201cI\u2019ll put my efforts to make sure the military has what they need to win the wars we\u2019re in, ahead of anybody in the United States Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, in the weeks before he died, Graham, who was seeking reelection, seemed open to a peace deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump told reporters as he arrived in Carlisle that Iranian officials \u201cbetter behave.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his remarks at the conference, he said \u201cthe Islamic Republic of Iran is not happy right now,\u201d adding: \u201cOther presidents didn\u2019t do what was right. They should have done it a long time ago. Would have been much easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to settle so badly,\u201d he claimed, referring to Iranian leaders before issuing another hawkish threat about the Middle Eastern country\u2019s future: \u201cThey don\u2019t like what we\u2019re doing, and they do want to settle. We\u2019ll find out whether or not we settle with them \u2014 or we just finish it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Bipartisan bill to eliminate hepatitis C unveiled in House<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some Senate Republicans and Democrats actually agree on one thing: It could take years for another lawmaker to become as big of a voice in any president\u2019s ear on foreign policy as Lindsey Graham was in Donald Trump\u2019s. 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