Lindsey Graham Gives Away Trump’s Entire Game on Iran War

When it comes to Donald Trump’s illegal war in Iran, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says it’s time to get rich or die trying. For other people, of course, not him personally.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Graham described Trump’s military campaign in Iran as a “good investment” toward security—but clearly, he saw another upside, too.

“When this regime goes down, we’re gonna have a new Mid-East, we’re gonna make a ton of money, no one will threaten the Straits of Hormuz again,” Graham said.

How exactly would the United States get rich off of Trump’s illegal war? By installing a friendlier regime it could “partner” with on energy deals. “Venezuela and Iran have 31 percent of the world’s oil reserves. We’re gonna have a partnership with 31 percent of the known reserves,” he said. “This is China’s nightmare.”

Later on Sunday, Graham took to social media to criticize Israel’s strikes on three Iranian oil depots, while claiming the goal was to keep infrastructure intact and “liberate” Iran. You’ll have to remind me, do liberation plans often make foreign super powers rich?

The South Carolina Republican also urged other Middle Eastern nations to join the effort. “Has any Arab country struck Iran? Now if you want a treaty with the United States, you need to get in this fight. Now America is not going to the Mid East just to fight alone,” he said.

His plea doesn’t seem to have gone over well abroad. UAE billionaire Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor called out Graham in a post on X Monday.

“Senator Graham says they are ‘the Arabs’ allies’ and that we need and benefit from U.S. protection. And I say to him: We do not need your protection. All we want from you is to keep your hands off us,” he wrote.

Graham is on the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committees, and will be a key decision maker on approving any potential supplemental defense funding.

Even GOP Senator Lindsey Graham—one of the most hawkish, warmongering politicians in this country—has come out against Israel’s recent attacks on Iran, specifically the fuel-supply bombings in Tehran that caused black oil to rain from the sky on Sunday morning.

“Our allies in Israel have shown amazing capability when it comes to collapsing the murderous regime in Iran. America is most appreciative. However, there will be a day soon that the Iranian people will be in charge of their own fate, not the murderous ayatollah’s regime,” Graham wrote Sunday on X. “In that regard, please be cautious about what targets you select. Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses. The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.”

Israel struck at least three oil depots in the Kuhak and Shahran areas of Tehran on Saturday night, releasing “significant quantities of toxic hydrocarbon compounds, sulfur, and nitrogen oxides” into the air and putting thousands of Iranians at risk of skin burns and lung damage.

The goal of “liberation” that Graham mentions is hard to take seriously as the U.S. and Israel bomb elementary schools. But their concern for oil—especially as costs skyrocket worldwide—is very serious.

Graham wasn’t the only U.S. insider more bothered by the oil attack than the more than 1,300 Iranian casualties. “We don’t think it was a good idea,” an anonymous senior U.S. official told Axios. And according to an Israeli official, the U.S. response to their attack was “WTF.” A White House adviser told Axios that “the president doesn’t like the attack. He wants to save the oil. He doesn’t want to burn it. And it reminds people of higher gas prices.”

The American and Israeli war on Iran is causing oil prices to skyrocket, fueling alarm around the world. 

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven, a collection of the world’s seven wealthiest nations, plan to meet on Monday to discuss a possible joint release of their emergency oil reserves in an effort to lower prices, Reuters reports. South Korea also plans to cap fuel prices for the first time in close to 30 years. 

At an emergency meeting, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called the war “a significant burden on our ⁠economy, which is highly dependent on global trade and energy imports from the Middle East.” Japan, which imports close to 95 percent of its oil from the Middle East, is reportedly preparing to release oil from its reserves, although no decision has been made yet. 

Vietnam has removed its import tariffs on fuel, while Bangladesh has shut down its universities to conserve energy. Last week, China asked its refiners to suspend fuel exports and cancel any existing oil shipments. 

In the Middle East itself, Iraq cut production in its oil fields by 70 percent, while Qatar, the world’s second-leading liquefied natural gas producer, has halted natural gas exports. Kuwait Petroleum Corp cut oil output on Saturday and declared force majeure, meaning that it can’t fulfill its contractual obligations. Bahrain’s state-owned Bapco Energies also declared force majeure on Monday after its refiners were attacked.  

Trump is trying to deflect concern about the oil price surge, posting on Truth Social Sunday night, “Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, ‌is a ⁠very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” But that’s of little comfort to the rest of the world. Oil prices have shot up to over $110 a barrel, the highest levels since the pandemic. With no plan in place for the war’s aftermath and no end in sight, it doesn’t look like things will get better anytime soon. 

Democrats are preparing to launch investigations into Kristi Noem’s conduct at the Department of Homeland Security.

Noem was removed from her post Thursday by President Trump, who has appointed her as the newly created special envoy for “The Shield of Americas.” But now, Democrats in Congress as well as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz are taking aim at Noem for the widespread misconduct and lawless behavior at DHS under her watch.

“We need a reckoning with the fact that there were murders that took place under her watch,” Representative Jamie Raskin told NBC News Thursday after her removal. “There was mass violence and violation of people’s civil rights and civil liberties. There’s been intense corruption, and there’s been rampant lying in the courts and disobeying of court orders.”

“She abused her power. She engaged in corruption. She spent millions of taxpayer funds on a luxury jet fleet with beautiful bedrooms, and her masked federal agents killed Americans,” Representative Ted Lieu said. “We’ll definitely investigate anyone within DHS who violated criminal law.”

Senator Richard Blumenthal, the ranking member of the Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, wants the panel to investigate Noem for perjury because at a hearing Tuesday, she denied that her aide and rumored boyfriend, Corey Lewandowski, had any say in how DHS handled its funding.

“Her firing doesn’t absolve her or relieve her of potential liability for perjury,” Blumenthal said. “We are going to pursue an investigation of the evidence that she lied, because it relates to corruption in the administration.”

Blumenthal sent a letter to Noem Wednesday pointing out that DHS records showed Lewandowski personally signing off on agency contracts, with DHS personnel seeing his signature at departmental approval. “There are criminal penalties for knowingly and willfully making materially false statements or representations to Congress,” Blumenthal wrote.

Referring to DHS operations in his state that left two Americans dead, Walz said on MS NOW Thursday, “I would just say at this time that former Secretary Noem should probably get used to spending more time in Minnesota because I have a pretty good feeling in the future she may be doing that because we have got to get accountability.”

Walz isn’t the only state governor who thinks Noem should face consequences. Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois said in a video statement, “I can guarantee you you will still be held accountable,” while California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X, “Firing her is not enough.” With all of these officials looking to hold her accountable, Noem may spend the rest of Trump’s presidency trying to escape criminal charges.

On Thursday, Texas GOP Representative Tony Gonzales dropped his reelection bid in Texas’s 23rd district amid an ethics investigation into reports that he had an affair with one of his staffers who later killed herself. His primary opponent—and now de facto GOP nominee—is Brandon Herrera, who is going viral for being a Nazi apologist.

Herrera, a right-wing, pro-gun YouTuber who goes by “The AK Guy,” has plenty of troubling red flags.

On Friday, a recent podcast clip began circulating featuring Herrera joking about Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

“That’s my copy at my house next to a bunch of the German stick grenades,” Herrera said, showing a co-host a picture on his phone. “I got the 1939 edition printed in English, just because I thought it was wild that you couldn’t buy it on Amazon, but you could buy The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital.” Mein Kampf is very much available on Amazon, making Herrera’s lazy and ahistorical equivocation all the more troubling.

In other past clips, Hererra has goose-stepped to a Nazi song, expressed affinity toward the white supremacist Dutch settlers who fought against locals and Communists in the Rhodesian Bush War, and referred to the Civil War as the “war of Northern aggression” while wearing a Confederate-flag shirt.

“I stand by it, this shit was funny as hell,” Herrera remarked on Friday, referring to the Nazi goose-stepping reenactment.

One man tied to a massive ethics breach and brutal suicide switched out for a man who has an unhealthy obsession with the far right and its weapons. Just another day in the MAGA-verse.