{"id":6029,"date":"2026-07-14T16:36:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=6029"},"modified":"2026-07-14T16:36:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:36:40","slug":"trumps-america-first-allies-are-eyeing-the-hawkish-void-graham-leaves-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=6029","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s America First allies are eyeing the hawkish void Graham leaves behind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-v-5d6b1cb2=\"\"><!--[--><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">Some in the America First camp also noted that <!--[-->Graham<!--]--> was willing to battle with their wing and its media allies head on in a way that some of his GOP counterparts with higher political aspirations were not \u2014 a move they grudgingly respected.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">\u201cNot only was he a hawk, but he was willing to be the Great Satan of the sort of realist restrainer camp,\u201d said <!--[-->Curt Mills<!--]-->, executive director of the American Conservative magazine. \u201cWhat you don\u2019t see from [Senate Majority Leader] <!--[-->John Thune<!--]--> or <!--[-->Tom Cotton<!--]--> is a desire to be on <!--[-->Tucker Carlson<!--]-->\u2019s bad side, be on <!--[-->Steve Bannon<!--]-->\u2019s bad side. I think that matters. <!--[-->Lindsey Graham<!--]--> didn\u2019t care. His goals were bad, but in that sense, his political courage for what he believed in was an asset for the hawks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">And <!--[-->Graham<!--]-->\u2019s commitment to the fight wasn\u2019t rhetorical. He died shortly after returning from yet another trip to Ukraine, the kind of relentless, hands-on advocacy that made him uniquely difficult for anti-interventionists to oppose.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">Still, not all of the president\u2019s America First allies see <!--[-->Graham<!--]-->\u2019s death as a boon to their cause. Some instead frame him as a bridge between a still-hawkish Senate GOP conference and a more anti-interventionist White House \u2014 someone who was able to move between both camps in a way that actually helped the America First cause.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">\u201cIt actually hurts the America First movement if we don\u2019t have establishment senators who are willing to give America First views a fair hearing, the way <!--[-->Graham<!--]--> did. He inserted kind of an interpretive bridge between the two sides. He did a lot for America First foreign policy,\u201d said <!--[-->Alex Gray<!--]-->, a former NSC official in <!--[-->Trump<!--]-->\u2019s first term. \u201cBecause he was so passionate about his view of America\u2019s role in the world, he chose to be that bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\"><!--[-->Patrick Wilson<!--]-->, a first term <!--[-->Trump<!--]--> administration official and technology lobbyist, said there is no clear person who can fill <!--[-->Graham<!--]-->\u2019s shoes.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">\u201cSen. <!--[-->Graham<!--]--> was a true believer in American liberty and our role in the world. He often reminded student groups, when they came to the Hill, that no other country in the world had to struggle with the conundrum of whether to make other men free,\u201d <!--[-->Wilson<!--]--> said. \u201cThere isn\u2019t a natural successor in the president\u2019s immediate circle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\"><em class=\"text-[var(--color-text-primary)]\">Alex Gangitano contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!--]--><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some in the America First camp also noted that Graham was willing to battle with their wing and its media allies head on in a way that some of his GOP counterparts with higher political aspirations were not \u2014 a move they grudgingly respected. \u201cNot only was he a hawk, but he was willing to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/dims4\/default\/resize\/1200\/quality\/90\/format\/jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.politico.com%2F28%2Fd2%2F076d38e84d1088b80cc9c94cbcdd%2Fhttps-delivery-gettyimages.com%2Fdownloads%2F2261123614","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}