2026-07-28T09:00:25.961Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/28/politics/lindsey-graham-trump-foreign-policy
参议员理查德·布卢门撒尔当时震惊不已。
那是2025年2月28日，他在电视直播中看到，唐纳德·特朗普总统、副总统J·D·万斯与乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基之间的关键性双边会谈陷入混乱。
布卢门撒尔知道，他必须联系那个他认为唯一能挽回局面的人：南卡罗来纳州资深参议员林赛·格雷厄姆。
就在这场会谈开始前几个小时，民主党人布卢门撒尔与共和党人格雷厄姆曾在白宫附近的布莱尔宫与泽连斯基秘密会面，协助这位乌克兰总统为这场高风险的会晤做准备。格雷厄姆警告称，无论椭圆形办公室里发生什么，泽连斯基都需要保持冷静、温和与镇定。
但事与愿违。
当乌克兰代表团被要求离开白宫时，格雷厄姆走到麦克风前斥责泽连斯基，称这位乌克兰总统“要么辞职，派一个我们能合作的人过来，要么就得做出改变”。
但布卢门撒尔表示，幕后的格雷厄姆其实已经在思考如何修复破坏，重建他花了数年时间帮助促成的泽连斯基与特朗普之间的关系。
“他从未放弃这项事业。”布卢门撒尔说道。
在格雷厄姆去世后的几周里，共和党人不得不面对这样一个现实：在外交政策领域，或是作为连接特朗普的渠道，没有人能够取代格雷厄姆。这让许多共和党人开始纠结本党外交政策的走向，鹰派声音如今已愈发稀少，白宫与国会山之间的关键纽带也已断裂。
格雷厄姆本人的鹰派立场——由他已故的导师约翰·麦凯恩参议员塑造——以及他与总统的密切关系，意味着他或许是最后一位能够渗透进特朗普“美国优先”式不干预主义纲领的共和党干预主义者。
“这无关格雷厄姆的个人观点，而是特朗普与格雷厄姆之间的化学反应。”北卡罗来纳州共和党参议员汤姆·蒂利斯说道，“我认为这种化学反应独一无二，不太可能重现。”
在十余次采访中，议员们表示，格雷厄姆既是自己的国务院、国际武官，也常常在周末到访任何国家时担任美国大使，同时还能直接与总统通话。亚利桑那州民主党参议员马克·凯利称，格雷厄姆出差太过频繁，以至于他曾看到这位参议院同事在军用飞机的地板上铺开睡袋过夜。
“你能看出来他对自己在做什么了然于胸。”凯利说道。
格雷厄姆几乎从不休息——反而将国会休会期变成会见外国领导人的机会。这意味着他的去世不仅收到了同僚们的悼念，也同样得到了全球各国元首的追忆。格雷厄姆在去世前几小时还身处乌克兰。
对于志同道合的共和党人而言，格雷厄姆在特朗普核心圈子中的位置至关重要。
“在总统身边其他一些不持相同立场的人面前，他充当了制衡力量。在我看来，这是政策层面最重大的损失。”曾与格雷厄姆在乌克兰事务上合作的共和党众议员布莱恩·菲茨帕特里克告诉CNN。
格雷厄姆与总统并非一直如此亲近。
2016年总统初选期间，格雷厄姆曾激烈反对特朗普，称共和党应该让特朗普“下地狱去吧”，并将其称为“共和党历史上最不合格的总统候选人”。但特朗普获胜后，格雷厄姆迅速转变，在有线电视新闻、高尔夫球场和国会山成为了总统的战略盟友。
作为对其忠诚的回报，格雷厄姆得以将自己的影响力施加在他最看重的议题之一：外交政策上。
“在无数对话与关键时刻，他都是关键所在。”阿拉巴马州共和党参议员凯蒂·布里特说道，“我的意思是，他与总统、与民主党人、与桑恩议员、与整个党团会议的关系，再加上他与世界各国领导人的联系。没有人能与他相比，他无可替代。”
当特朗普核心圈子中的许多人都担心军事干预会将美国拖入无休止的泥潭时，格雷厄姆仍在游说总统对伊朗采取行动。即便支持率下滑，他仍持续敦促总统保持强硬姿态。
“我不信任伊朗，无论是在浓缩铀问题上，还是那900磅高浓缩铀的归属问题，这些都必须置于我们的控制之下。这是总统的底线。霍尔木兹海峡必须保持开放，未来不受伊朗干扰。”格雷厄姆在4月告诉记者，为特朗普在Truth Social上威胁要终结伊朗文明的言论辩护，“我担心他们会拖延时间，我敦促总统坚持最后期限，如果他们无法达成令他满意的协议，那么他就应该完成这项任务。”
自2022年俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以来，格雷厄姆已10次访问乌克兰，他还利用与特朗普的关系游说另一项首要议题：结束乌克兰战争。
曾尖锐批评特朗普乌克兰政策的共和党众议员唐·培根表示，格雷厄姆在幕后倡导美国援助乌克兰，对引导总统立场起到了关键作用。
“我一直称他为‘特朗普的耳语者’。”培根说道。
曾与格雷厄姆一同乘坐10小时火车前往乌克兰的民主党参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦称，格雷厄姆是这场冲突的专家。她说他能够带着她逐街逐街走过基辅，指出哪些建筑曾遭轰炸以及具体时间。
“乌克兰人将所有被烧毁的俄罗斯坦克排列在主干道中央，这样每个人路过时都能看到俄罗斯人的耻辱——他们本以为能轻松开进乌克兰，在几周内就占领这里。每看到一辆烧毁的坦克，林赛都欣喜不已。”沃伦回忆道。
在去世前15个月，格雷厄姆与布卢门撒尔提出了一项雄心勃勃的制裁法案，格雷厄姆称该法案将成为打击俄罗斯经济与总统弗拉基米尔·普京的“大锤”。法案目标是制裁俄罗斯政府成员及其寡头，同时对几乎所有进口俄罗斯石油和天然气的国家征收至少500%的严厉关税。
尽管该法案最终在参议院获得了80多名两党共同提案人的支持，但由于白宫表示不支持该方案，法案停滞了一年多。参议院多数党领袖约翰·桑恩明确表示：在行政当局批准之前，参议院不会就该法案进行 floor 投票。
如果他们需要总统的批准，没有哪位参议员比格雷厄姆更适合拿到这份批准。
“他对总统的了解，以及他似乎能够影响总统的能力，再次让他成为了这里独一无二的人物。”布卢门撒尔说道，“他既迅速与民主党人接触，又持续与特朗普保持联系，这种结合构成了他独特的角色。”
在那一年里，格雷厄姆曾多次发表声明称谈判已接近尾声，但白宫始终没有给出正式认可。
“他常常和我们其他人一样，对总统感到沮丧。”布卢门撒尔在谈到格雷厄姆时说道，“但他以幽默的态度接受了这一切——或许用‘接受’这个词并不准确，但他从未放弃俄罗斯制裁法案这项事业，因为他知道这是正确的事情，他完全致力于推动法案通过。”
7月10日周五，格雷厄姆结束了他最后一次国际行程，抵达乌克兰。他宣布，自己与参议院同僚终于获得了白宫对一项制裁方案的支持。
“我们与白宫就他们将支持的俄罗斯制裁法案版本达成了协议。”格雷厄姆站在基辅街头的坦克前说道，“这意味着该法案将成为法律。”
一天后，格雷厄姆去世。
同僚们在缅怀他的同时，也着手接手他的工作。
“我认识这个人32年了，我可以毫不讳言地说：这就是林赛·格雷厄姆最伟大的成就。”参议院军事委员会主席罗杰·威克在几天后的新闻发布会上谈及俄罗斯制裁法案时说道。
随着参议员们公布经过艰苦谈判达成的新法案文本，阿拉巴马州参议员布里特承担起了部分责任。
更新后的文本将关税上限降至美国贸易代表贾米森·格里尔确定的100%。法案针对俄罗斯石油和天然气的前五大进口国，为那些正在采取措施减少对俄罗斯能源依赖的国家设置了例外条款。
“他教会了我太多。看，他非常慷慨，允许我参与到谈判桌中，很多次这样的机会，仅凭我自己可能需要数年才能获得。”布里特回忆起与格雷厄姆的过往时说道。
该法案仍面临诸多障碍。并非所有参议员都已表示支持。一些民主党人对授予政府更多关税权限表示担忧。随着11月中期选举临近，参议院仅剩几周的会期，同时还面临迫在眉睫的政府资金拨付截止日期。
但桑恩与该法案的共同提案人表示，他们致力于推动该法案通过，并计划将其以格雷厄姆的名字命名。
“独特的个性”与大量两党友谊
如果你询问国会议员对林赛·格雷厄姆的看法，他们可能会告诉你两件事：他拥有化解几乎任何局面的超凡能力，以及你永远无法确定他的滑稽举动会走向何方。
2015年初就发生过这样一件事：两党参议员代表团前往约旦、以色列和沙特阿拉伯，尽可能多地与利益相关方会面，讨论奥巴马政府谈判达成的《联合全面行动计划》——即后来特朗普废除的伊朗核协议。
弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员蒂姆·凯恩表示，在国会代表团行程的最后一天，参议员们抵达特拉维夫的以色列情报和特殊使命局（摩萨德），与时任局长塔米尔·帕尔多会面。凯恩称，议员们被带到一个会议室，里面“摆满了各种酒水、一台咖啡机、软饮料和酒精”。
“这是一场关于极其严肃议题的非常严肃的会议。我们走进来时，林赛走在前面，帕尔多说道：‘很高兴见到你，格雷厄姆参议员。我们能为您喝点什么？’”凯恩回忆道，“而林赛只是说：‘你他妈的是摩萨德，你应该知道我想喝什么。’”
凯恩说，代表团成员对格雷厄姆的回应有些惊讶，也担心此举会适得其反。
“当时出现了一阵尴尬的停顿，比如，林赛为什么要以这种方式开启会议？”凯恩说道。
随后，凯恩表示，帕尔多的一位助手插话道：“零度可乐，先生。”
议员们称，正是这种大胆却又让人放松的魅力，是格雷厄姆时刻都在运用的手段。
培根回忆起21世纪初在巴格达担任上校时与格雷厄姆的会面，他称赞曾在美国空军预备役服役的格雷厄姆在探望部队时身着军装。
“我很感激一位参议员能够加入预备役并前往战区。我的意思是，我觉得这才是真正的以身作则，他本可以选择轻松的方式，但没有，他一次会在伊拉克待上几周，我对此心存感激。”培根说道。
“林赛拥有独特的个性。”俄克拉荷马州参议员詹姆斯·兰克福德说道，“他会说些有趣或者对他而言不合时宜的话，然后他就能改变整个会议的氛围。”
德克萨斯州参议员特德·克鲁兹表示，这对他与总统的关系至关重要。“他在美国参议院深受爱戴，也深受唐纳德·特朗普的喜爱。我得说，林赛·格雷厄姆与唐纳德·特朗普之间的关系——我从未见过类似的情况。这非同寻常。他们可能会有九次意见不合，但依然会笑着、彼此欣赏，并在其他十几个议题上合作。”
布卢门撒尔也赞同，格雷厄姆的机智是他工作的核心。“我在重大议题上与林赛·格雷厄姆存在深刻且根本性的分歧，但他个人角色的一部分就是弥合分歧，或者至少绕过分歧开展工作。”
经常与格雷厄姆一同参加海外国会代表团的民主党参议员克里斯·库恩斯表示，他能看到共和党党团会议里“几位第一任期和第二任期的参议员”可以尝试弥补格雷厄姆去世带来的损失。“但格雷厄姆参议员花在海外旅行、建立关系以及与民主党参议员合作上的时间和精力，是很难被取代的。非常难。”
凯利参议员认为，这不可能仅由一人填补：“必须得两个人才行。”
‘He’s irreplaceable’: How Lindsey Graham made an indelible mark on foreign policy and Trump
2026-07-28T09:00:25.961Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/28/politics/lindsey-graham-trump-foreign-policy
Sen. Richard Blumenthal was stunned.
It was February 28, 2025, and he was watching on live television as a crucial bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky descended into chaos.
Blumenthal knew he needed to call the only person he thought could put it all back together: Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Just hours before the meeting, Blumenthal, a Democrat, and Graham, a Republican, had met quietly with Zelensky at Blair House, just steps from the White House, to prepare the Ukrainian president for his high-stakes sit-down. No matter what happened in the Oval Office, Graham warned, Zelensky needed to remain composed, conciliatory and calm.
That is not what happened.
As the Ukrainians were asked to depart the White House, Graham went to the mics and reprimanded Zelensky, saying the Ukrainian president “either needs to resign and send somebody over we can do business with, or he needs to change.”
But behind the scenes, Blumenthal said Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina, was already thinking about how to repair the damage and get a relationship he’d spent years helping build between Zelensky and Trump back on track.
“He just never gave up on this cause,” Blumenthal said.
In the weeks since Graham’s death, Republicans have confronted the reality that there will be no replacing Graham when it comes to foreign policy or as a conduit to Trump. And that has left many in the GOP grappling with the direction of their party’s foreign policy, with hawkish voices now far less common and a critical link between the White House and Capitol Hill gone.
Graham’s own hawkish views – shaped by his late mentor Sen. John McCain – and his close relationship with the president meant he was perhaps the last Republican interventionist able to permeate Trump’s non-interventionist, “America first” platform.
“It’s not about Graham’s views. It’s about that Trump-Graham chemistry,” Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, said. “I think that is a unique chemistry and not one that will likely be repeated.”
In more than a dozen interviews, lawmakers said Graham acted as his own State Department, international attaché and, often, US ambassador to whatever country he happened to land in that weekend, all while enjoying a direct line to the president. Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, said Graham traveled so often that he once saw his senate colleague unfurl a sleeping bag on the floor of a military aircraft.
“You could tell he knew what he was doing,” Kelly said.
Graham did not take many breaks – instead converting congressional recesses into opportunities to meet with foreign leaders. That meant his death was marked by just as many remembrances from global heads of state as it was by condolences from colleagues. Graham had spent his final days in Ukraine, hours before his death.
For likeminded Republicans, Graham’s position in Trump’s inner-circle was key.
“I think he served as a counterbalance as some of the other people around the president that don’t share that view. So, I think that’s going to be the biggest loss for my perspective from a policy standpoint,” GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who worked with Graham on Ukraine matters, told CNN.
Graham and the president weren’t always so close.
Graham bitterly campaigned against Trump in the 2016 presidential primary, saying the party should tell Trump to “go to hell,” and calling him the “most flawed nominee in the history of the Republican Party.” But when Trump won, Graham transformed into a strategic ally for the president on cable news, the golf course and Capitol Hill.
In return for his loyalty, Graham was able to inject his own influence on one of the issues that mattered most to him – foreign policy.
“He was the linchpin in so many conversations and so many moments,” said GOP Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama. “I mean, his relationship with the president, with Democrats, with Leader Thune, with the conference as a whole, and then you add on that his relationship with world leaders. There’s just nobody like him, and he’s irreplaceable.”
Graham lobbied the president to act on Iran at a time when many in Trump’s inner circle were wary that military intervention would push the US into an open-ended quagmire. Even as support waned, he continued to push the president to keep up his aggressive posture.
“I don’t trust Iran when it comes to enrichment, when it comes to the 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, it needs to be in our control. Those are the bottom lines of the president. The Strait of Hormuz needs to be open without any future interference by Iran,” Graham told reporters in April, defending Trump’s post on Truth Social threatening to end the Iranian civilization. “I’m afraid they’re going to drag it out, and I would urge the president to stick to the deadline, and if they can’t reach a deal acceptable to him, then he should finish the job.”
Graham, who visited Ukraine 10 times since the 2022 Russian invasion, also used his relationship with Trump to lobby on another top priority: ending the war there.
GOP Rep. Don Bacon, who has sharply criticized Trump over Ukraine policy, suggested that Graham’s behind-the-scenes advocacy for the US to help Ukraine played a critical role in steering the president.
“I always called him the Trump whisperer,” Bacon said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat who once took a 10-hour train ride with Graham to get to Ukraine, said Graham was an expert on the conflict. She said he was able to walk her through the streets of Kyiv block by block, noting which buildings had been bombed and when.
“The Ukrainians had lined up all of the Russian burned out tanks in the center of the main road so that everyone walked past them and saw the humiliation of the Russians who thought they were going to waltz in to Ukraine and own it in a handful of weeks. Lindsey was delighted by every burnt out tank,” Warren recalled.
Fifteen months before his death, Graham and Blumenthal introduced an ambitious sanctions package that Graham declared would be a “sledgehammer” aimed at the Russian economy and President Vladimir Putin. The goal was to sanction members of the Russian government and its oligarchy, paired with blistering tariffs of at least 500% targeted at almost any nation that imported Russian oil and natural gas.
While the bill ultimately gained more than 80 bipartisan co-sponsors in the Senate, it stalled for over a year as the White House signaled the package did not have its support. Senate Majority Leader John Thune was clear: there would be no vote on the Senate floor until the administration signed off.
And if it was the president’s sign-off they needed, no senator was better positioned to get it than Graham.
“His understanding of the president, but also his seeming ability to influence him, again, made him a unique figure here,” Blumenthal said. “The combination of his alacrity in reaching across to Democrats, but also his continuing ties to Trump, were part of his unique role.”
There were moments during that year when Graham released statements promising they were close, but an official endorsement from the White House didn’t follow.
“He was often as frustrated with the president as any of us, you know,” Blumenthal said of Graham. “But he accepted it with good humor – not necessarily, maybe accepted is the wrong word, but he never abandoned the cause of the Russia sanctions bill because he knew it was the right thing, and he was totally dedicated to getting it done.”
On Friday, July 10, Graham wrapped up what would be his final international trip in Ukraine. He announced that he and his Senate colleagues had finally secured the White House’s endorsement of a sanctions package.
“We reached agreement with the White House on a version of the Russia sanctions bill that they will support,” Graham said as he stood before tanks in the streets of Kyiv. “It means it is gonna become law.”
A day later, Graham died.
Colleagues looked to pick up his work as they paid tribute to his memory.
“I’ve known this man for 32 years, and I’m willing to say this: this is Lindsey Graham’s greatest achievement,” Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker said of the Russian sanctions bill at a press conference just days later.
Britt, the Alabama senator, shouldered some of the responsibility as senators released the painstakingly negotiated text of the new package.
The updated text dropped the tariff levels to a maximum of 100%, as determined by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. It targeted the top five importers of Russian oil and natural gas, with exceptions for nations that were taking steps to lessen their dependence on Russian energy.
“He taught me so much. Look, he was so gracious in allowing me to have a seat at the table, many times of which it would have taken me years to get there on my own,” Britt recalled of Graham.
The package still faces hurdles. Not every senator is on board yet. Some Democrats are raising concerns with handing the administration more tariff authority. And the Senate only has a few more weeks in session ahead of the November midterms as they face a looming government funding deadline.
But Thune and the bill’s cosponsors say they are committed to passing the package, which they plan to name after Graham.
‘A unique personality’ and a slew of bipartisan friendships
If you ask a member of Congress about Lindsey Graham, they will probably tell you two things: He had an uncanny ability to disarm just about any situation, and you could never be sure where his antics were headed.
That was the case in early 2015 when a bipartisan delegation of senators traveled to Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia to talk to as many stakeholders as they could about the Obama administration’s negotiations on the JCPOA, a nuclear deal with Iran that Trump later abandoned.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, said that on the last day of the congressional delegation trip, the senators arrived in Tel Aviv at the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, to meet with its then-head, Tamir Pardo. Kaine said the lawmakers were escorted to a conference room that had “a full bar with every drink you could get,” an espresso machine, soft drinks and alcohol.
“It’s a very serious meeting on a very serious topic. And when we walk in, Lindsey is kind of in the lead, and Pardo goes, ‘Good to see you, Senator Graham. Can we get you anything to drink?” Kaine recalled. “And Lindsey just goes, ‘You’re the effing Mossad. You should know what I want to drink.’”
Kaine said the group was a bit taken aback by Graham’s response and nervous it was about to backfire.
“There’s this kind of embarrassed pause, like, you know, why is Lindsey starting the meeting off this way?” Kaine said.
Then, Kaine said, one of Pardo’s lieutenants chimed in, “Coke Zero, sir.”
It was this kind of brash-yet-disarming charm that senators said Graham deployed all the time.
Bacon recalled meeting Graham while serving as a colonel in Baghdad in the early 2000’s, and said he appreciated that Graham – who served in the Air Force Reserves – wore his uniform when visiting with troops.
“I appreciated a senator getting in the reserves and going to the war zone. I mean, I felt like that it’s really leading by example, he could have taken the easy way out, but no, he went to Iraq for a couple weeks at a time, I was grateful,” Bacon said.
“Lindsey had a unique personality,” Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford said. “He’d say something funny or for him off color, and he would change the whole attitude of the meeting.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said this was key to his relationship with the president. “He was beloved in the United States Senate, and he was beloved by Donald Trump. I got to say, the relationship Lindsey Graham and Donald Trump had — I’ve never seen anything like it. It was extraordinary. They would disagree nine times and still be laughing and loving each other and working together on a dozen other issues.”
Blumenthal agreed that Graham’s wit was central to his work. “I differed with Lindsey Graham deeply and profoundly on major issues, but part of his personal role was to bridge differences, or at least work around them.”
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, who frequently joined congressional delegations abroad with Graham, said he could see “a couple of first and second term senators” in the Republican conference who could try to compensate for the loss of Graham. “But the amount of time and effort Senator Graham put into traveling overseas and building relationships and working with Democratic senators, that’s going to be hard to replace. Very hard to replace.”
Sen. Kelly argued it couldn’t just be one person: “It would have to be two.”
