Not even notorious Iran hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham could fully get behind Israel bombing Tehran’s fuel depots over the weekend.
Graham (R-SC) gently called out the Jewish state for its Saturday strikes on 30 storage sites and other energy infrastructure in Iran, urging the US ally to be more careful about its target selection.
“Our allies in Israel have shown amazing capability when it comes to collapsing the murderous regime in Iran. America is most appreciative,” Graham wrote diplomatically on X.
“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. In that regard, please be cautious about what targets you select.”
The Israeli strikes sparked hellish fires and monster plumes of black smoke that later sprinkled toxic, acidic rain in and around Tehran.
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. In…
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 9, 2026
While Israel had given the Trump administration advance notice of the strikes, which were intended to degrade Tehran’s infrastructure to fund its military activities, Washington was caught off guard by the scale of the attack, Axios reported.
Top officials cited in the report, which Graham shared while delivering his gentle pushback against Israel, fretted that the strikes could motivate Iranians to rally around the regime.
“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,” Graham stressed. “The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.”
Graham has been one of the foremost advocates of Operation Epic Fury and has recently pushed Trump to bomb Hezbollah in Lebanon and liberate Cuba.
“You just wait to see what comes in the next two weeks,” Graham told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” regarding Operation Epic Fury in Iran. “We’re going to blow the hell out of these people.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) quipped to reporters last week that Graham “hasn’t seen a fist fight he hasn’t wanted to turn into a bombing raid!”
Even Trump himself has poked at Graham’s hawkishness, chiding in 2019 that the South Carolinian “would like to stay in the Middle East for the next thousand years.”
I’ve known Lindsey Graham since I was a child. I am imploring anyone who will listen in the Trump administration to stop sending this man out as a surrogate. He is scaring people and doing damage to whatever message you’re trying to sell to the American public about the Iran war. https://t.co/8SjGsIfMzT
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) March 8, 2026
Graham’s rhetoric drew a Sunday rebuke from the daughter of his late Senate ally, John McCain.
“I’ve known Lindsey Graham since I was a child,” Meghan McCain wrote pleadingly on X. “I am imploring anyone who will listen in the Trump administration to stop sending this man out as a surrogate.”
“He is scaring people and doing damage to whatever message you’re trying to sell to the American public about the Iran war.”
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