Why 'dinosaur' Lindsey Graham took a back seat in Trump’s orbit
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) looks on, on the day he meets with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz along with other Senators, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 5, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
Two different politicians coddle MAGA’s fold, but one only goes so far. Yet both manage to wield power in MAGA’s ‘all or nothing’ universe of borg-like assimilation.
Axios reports both Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio benefited in the wide shadow of President Donald Trump, but Graham maintains elements of independence before a demanding audience that rarely tolerates an independent streak. MAGA has noticed how Lindsey never shook his neoconservative roots on foreign policy, and MAGA’s gritty generals have put a target on Graham after the senator dared to support Ukraine’s embattled leader, against MAGA’s wishes.
Rubio, however, turned like a reed in a gale, says Axios. Once a passionate supporter of foreign aid, Rubio has overseen the evisceration of USAID, according to the Washington Post, shuttering international health clinics once a bastion against disease in Africa and the Middle East. He was also once a hawk on foreign policy who railed presidents for corresponding with perceived U.S. adversaries. Now The Post says he defends Trump’s outreach to Russia, Iran, and Hamas. Axios describes him as having “listened, adapted, and sold himself as a convert.”
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Whereas Rubio “thought about this stuff, formulated a plan to address it and then communicated that plan," according to Axios right-wing sources, "Graham just went about business as usual in Washington.”
In 2017, Axios reports Graham advocated for Congress to grant a pathway to citizenship for undocumented "Dreamers" who arrived in the U.S. as children, and he’s pressed for U.S.-backed Israeli military strikes on Iran to destroy its nuclear program.
When Graham met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in May and flashed a thumbs up, he was actually sticking to his age-old policy of supporting the victims of a longtime U.S. adversary, despite MAGA’s new fascination with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
"Lindsey Graham may actually represent one of the last times that a senator could actually be so flagrantly flippant about public perception on the right," The National Pulse's Raheem Kassam told Axios. "I think the trend is towards, not against, populism. And somebody like Graham really is a dinosaur now."
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But Graham is still relevant, despite his “outdated’ views. Axios says he remains a Trump ally and curries forgiveness from Trump when he “heaps praise” on the president.
"Sen. Graham has supported President Trump from the beginning and has been a loyal ally in the Senate fighting for the America First agenda," Senate Republicans' super PAC Alex Latcham told Axios.
Read the full Axios report at this link.
