President Donald Trump reportedly reflected on the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s foreign policy views during a Tuesday morning appearance on Fox News, saying the longtime South Carolina lawmaker was known for his hawkish approach to military conflicts while also noting that Graham’s views on Iran had evolved in recent weeks.
Trump called into Fox & Friends just hours before Graham’s memorial service in Washington, D.C., where the president was set to pay tribute to one of his closest allies in Congress. During the interview, co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Trump about the war in Iran, an issue on which Graham had been a vocal supporter of military action.
“I mean, Lindsey liked war, to be honest with ya, OK?” Trump said. “I said, ‘You’re a nice guy, how come you like war so much?’ He was a guy that liked war.”
The president added that he often joked about Graham’s reputation as a foreign policy hawk.
“I jokingly say — and there’s nothing funny about it — but he’s never seen a war he didn’t like,” Trump said. “He was very much into that. And you know, for good reasons he felt that way.”
Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt then referenced comments made by Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, who has received Trump’s endorsement in her campaign to succeed her brother in the Senate.
During an appearance on Sean Hannity’s program, Nordone said of her brother, “He didn’t love war, he loved peace and the end of war. But sometimes war is necessary.”
Trump did not dispute her characterization, and the conversation moved on to additional questions about the conflict with Iran.
Before discussing Graham’s reputation as a foreign policy hawk, Trump said he believed the senator’s position on Iran had shifted in the weeks leading up to his death.
“Very interesting with Lindsey, he was very much a hawk, as you would say, on Iran,” Trump said. “And over the last few weeks, I would say that he became like, if you could make a deal, it’s better making a deal in this case than just destroying the rest of the country. We’ve destroyed most of it, frankly.”
While Trump suggested Graham had become more open to pursuing a negotiated agreement with Iran, he said the senator did not take the same approach to the war between Ukraine and Russia.
According to Trump, Graham remained a “militant” supporter of Ukraine after returning from a trip to the country just one day before his unexpected death earlier this month at the age of 71.
Graham had become one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill and strongly supported the president’s military campaign against Iran.
Before Operation Epic Fury was launched in February, the South Carolina senator urged Trump to take military action against the country. He also had “Make Iran Great Again” hats produced, echoing the president’s well-known “Make America Great Again” slogan.
In June, Graham predicted that Trump would “obliterate” Iran if the country’s theocratic leadership interfered with the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring the senator’s longstanding support for a forceful approach toward the regime.
[READ MORE: Trump to Deliver Tribute at Lindsey Graham Funeral in Washington]
