Graham compared Trump and Netanyahu to FDR and Churchill, new footage shows

Senate Graham compared Trump and Netanyahu to FDR and Churchill, new footage shows Comments: by Max Rego - 07/26/26 10:07 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Max Rego - 07/26/26 10:07 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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New documentary footage shows the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) staunchly backing the war in Iran, even going so far as to compare President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

The footage, which filmmaker Alex Holder captured by spending hundreds of hours with Graham dating back to 2023, shows the late senator expressing satisfaction with the initial wave of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

“We’ve done it,” a cackling Graham said in his office in the early days of the war, according to footage obtained by The Wall Street Journal. “I almost cried. I mean, how long have we been pushing this?”

The South Carolina lawmaker, who died earlier this month after suffering an aortic dissection, said in the footage he spoke to Trump that morning.

“He’s jacked. He said, ‘Best thing I’ve ever done.’ He loves blowing stuff up,” said Graham, a military interventionist who has long advocated for military action against Iran.

“President Trump, when he gets into the zone, he listens, he asks good questions, no tweeting. He… hasn’t tweeted much at all,” Graham added. “No drama, he’s been a great wartime president.”

The senator continued, “Trump and Bibi are like Roosevelt and Churchill. I mean, they’re the right two guys to confront this evil.”

On March 4, Graham also predicted that the Iranian regime would “start losing control of some cities” within three to four weeks, which did not occur.

“What we’re trying to do is just get a few cities to fall in the next month, get the Arabs more openly involved tomorrow or by the end of the week and just have almost irreversible momentum,” he told Jake Sullivan, former President Biden’s national security adviser, according to footage obtained by CNN.

During an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Holder said the footage he captured shows how “consequential” Graham was to convincing Trump to launch the war with Netanyahu.

“He really was pushing for this war. And when the bombs started falling… you can see how happy he was,” Holder told host Manu Raju.