Appearing Tuesday night on Fox News’ “Hannity”, the South Carolina Republican made it clear that under President Donald J. Trump, the era of American apologies is over. Joined by fellow Sen. Tim Scott, Graham delivered a blunt, no-nonsense message aimed straight at authoritarian regimes—from the Middle East to Latin America—and especially to the long-suffering people trapped under them.
Turning first to Iran, where Islamist rulers have violently cracked down on protests, Graham spoke directly to the Iranian people living under what he described as a brutal regime responsible for dozens of deaths.
“To the people of Iran, help is on the way,” the senator said before confirming to host Sean Hannity that he had given the president a “Make Iran Great Again” hat. “I did. And [Trump’s] not [former President] Barack Obama. He’s not turning his back on the people of Iran who are demanding that their oppression end. And to the ayatollah and his thugs, if you keep killing your people in defiance of President Trump, you’re gonna wake up dead. Iran is on the verge of falling.”
(Video Credit: Fox News)
That was no slip of the tongue—it was a declaration. And it fits squarely with Trump’s foreign-policy doctrine: stand with freedom, confront evil, and never appease terrorists or tyrants.
Before pivoting to the Middle East, Graham widened the lens to America’s own hemisphere, where socialist strongmen are also feeling the pressure. Venezuela’s Maduro regime, long propped up by corruption and repression, was front and center.
“If you defy [Trump], if you’re one of the holdovers and you try to undercut him, what happened to Maduro is gonna happen to you,” Graham warned. “But, there’ll be a day in the future when the country is ready for elections — free and fair — that will elect people that will be allies of the United States. The dictator, the thug, is in jail in New York.”
From there, Graham went for the jugular—Cuba’s communist dictatorship, which has clung to power since the 1950s while its people suffer.
“Donald J. Trump, in my view, is the greatest president of all time. He’s cutting your taxes, he’s cutting spending. Every drug — narcoterrorist drug dealer, drug leader, is on the run. Cuba is on death watch,” asserted the senator. “Cuba depends on Russia and Venezuela. Both of them are in a box. It’s just a matter of time, and I mean a short time, until the communist dictatorship in Cuba that has oppressed their people since the mid-50s falls to be replaced with a democracy friendly to the United States.”
That kind of unapologetic leadership has rattled not just America’s enemies—but also some on Capitol Hill.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul publicly expressed concern that Trump was “under the thrall of Lindsey Graham,” comparing recent foreign-policy moves to the “war-mad” Bushes who “wanted to be involved in all these crazy wars overseas or make the world safe for democracy.”
“I never liked any of that. And I thought Trump was different,” Paul told reporters, adding his disappointment in seeing the supposed influence of Graham.
