Newly released footage filmed just weeks before Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death is shedding light on what the longtime Trump ally really thought about the president’s handling of the Iran war, and it’s not exactly a glowing review.
Graham, who died on July 11 at age 71 after suffering an aortic dissection, had spent years as one of the loudest Republican voices calling for a hardline approach toward Iran. But behind the scenes, he appeared increasingly frustrated with how Donald Trump was managing the conflict.
In filmmaker Alex Holder’s upcoming documentary, Lindsey’s Game, Graham is seen speaking candidly about the war during an interview recorded in June.
“Iran—he’s letting this thing slip away,” Graham said of Trump. “We had them on the ropes, and his indecision is coming back to hurt us.”
The comments stand out because Graham was widely viewed as one of Trump’s closest allies on foreign policy. Yet in private, he suggested the president wasn’t following through aggressively enough.
“I’ve got to go talk to him,” Graham said. “Open up the straits, keep the pressure on, unleash Israel to hurt them, and maybe you’ll get a better deal.”
Graham argued that the ultimate objective wasn’t just Iran, but reshaping the Middle East through a broader Saudi-Israeli alliance.
“The big prize,” he said, “can’t happen until Israel and Saudi believe Iran has been put in a box.”
Even as he criticized Trump’s strategy, Graham acknowledged the president’s influence over America’s closest Middle East allies.
According to Graham, both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “owe Trump a lot, they like Trump, but they’re afraid of Trump.”
He also praised Trump for taking a tougher public line with Netanyahu than previous Republican presidents, although he suggested Trump occasionally pushed too far.
“I think he’s going a bit too far,” Graham admitted, while arguing that Trump’s willingness to publicly confront Israel gave him credibility across the Arab world.
The documentary also reveals Graham’s frustration with two of Trump’s top Middle East advisers: Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
“I can’t do it with Jared, and I can’t do it with Witkoff,” Graham reportedly said during a conversation with former Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan. “They’re just too conflicted.”
Instead, Graham believed Secretary of State Marco Rubio should take over the negotiations.
Those criticisms echoed concerns voiced by some conservatives, including Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, who questioned whether Kushner and Witkoff were trying to juggle too many international negotiations at once.
A White House official defended both men, telling The Wall Street Journal that “Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are excellent dealmakers whose results speak for themselves.”
Graham also made clear that he wanted to prove isolationism had no future inside today’s Republican Party.
“So this was a referendum on isolationism versus Lindsey Graham MAGA Trump,” he said.
The remarks are especially striking given Graham’s political evolution.
During the 2016 Republican primary, he famously blasted Trump as a “jackass” and a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot.” But after Trump won the presidency, Graham became one of his most loyal defenders, campaigning for him in both 2020 and 2024 while remaining a regular voice in the president’s ear on foreign policy.
Now, with Holder’s documentary set for release, Graham’s final recorded comments are offering a rare glimpse into the private conversations that unfolded behind closed doors—and revealing that even one of Trump’s closest Republican allies had serious doubts about how he was handling one of the biggest foreign policy crises of his presidency.
Watch the clip below:
a clip from one of Lindsey Graham's final interviews features his criticizing Trump: "Iran, he's letting this thing slip away. We had them on the ropes and his indecision is coming back to haunt us." pic.twitter.com/lGKg3XIAcB
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 27, 2026
