fbpx

RECENT NEWS

Growing divide

Graham says he is fighting a ‘growing isolationist movement’ within GOP

Speaking at an Orthodox Union Advocacy Center conference, Sen. Lindsey Graham warned: ‘There is an element of our party that’s saying, We don’t want to get sucked into endless war because of Israel’

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 30, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed concern on Monday about the isolationist arm of the Republican Party, making him one of the most high-profile administration allies to publicly criticize a key faction of President Donald Trump’s base.

“On the right, there’s a growing isolationist movement that I fight all the time,” Graham said at an Orthodox Union Advocacy Center attorneys conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 

What alarms him, Graham continued, is that Republican isolationists are now beginning to target Israel as they seek to limit America’s activity on the world stage. He noted that many right-wing isolationists view Israel as the driver of Washington’s global interventionist approach.  

“It’s beginning to include Israel,” he said. “In the past it really hasn’t, but now it’s more open, and so there is an element of our party that’s saying, We don’t want to get sucked into endless war because of Israel.”

Graham’s comments come just a day after he told Fox News that the U.S. should back Israel if it attacks Iran’s nuclear capability, even as Trump has been floating the idea of negotiations with Iran. Graham said on Monday that he planned to urge Israel to take stronger action against Iran in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington this week. 

Vice President J.D. Vance gave a speech at the isolationist Quincy Institute in May 2024 in which he argued that the America First worldview should differentiate between U.S. support for Israel and U.S. involvement in other foreign conflicts — particularly Ukraine, as many Republicans have grown skeptical of U.S. military assistance to Kyiv. 

“It’s sort of weird that this town assumes that Israel and Ukraine are exactly the same. They’re not, of course, and I think it’s important to analyze them in separate buckets,” Vance said last year. 

Graham’s remarks underscore concerns from some Republicans that the isolationist wing of the party is now targeting Israel, too, as it seeks to shape Trump’s foreign policy. 

Isolationist foreign policy advocates have been elevated to key roles in the Department of Defense, but even hawkish congressional Republicans such as Graham have been reticent to publicly criticize them. 

Michael DiMino, Trump’s pick for deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, and Dan Caldwell, a Pentagon advisor who is playing a behind-the-scenes role guiding personnel decisions, have both made statements indicating that are at odds with the Middle East policy of Trump’s first term.

Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for the Senate-confirmed post of undersecretary of defense for policy, has argued in favor of accommodating Iran’s regional expansionist agenda and opposed military action against Iran’s nuclear program.

Subscribe now to
the Daily Kickoff

The politics and business news you need to stay up to date, delivered each morning in a must-read newsletter.