[Salon] President Lindsey Graham?





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President Lindsey Graham?

Prem on how the hawkish Republican senator got the Iran invasion he’s been pining for and now wants to attack Cuba too, while Donald Trump is still not worried about exploding gas prices.

Mar 9

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On this day in 1933, the 73rd US Congress was called into a special session by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, beginning its “100 days” during which it passed 77 bills into law. Compare and contrast with the current GOP-led 119th Congress, which is on course to be the least productive and most useless in our nation’s history.



Good morning! Prem here, wishing you all a wonderful new week. Since we last spoke, Zeteo has weathered several attacks, including from Donald Trump’s pro-Israel White House and one prominent pro-Israel Democratic senator, as we continue to push for truth and accountability on the illegal Israel-led war on Iran… another reminder that your support for our work is needed more now than ever!

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has gone from Trump foe to practically directing the president’s warmongering foreign policy; oil prices are going through the roof, but Trump doesn’t seem to care; and Democrats are calling on the Pentagon to investigate the horrific attack on an Iranian elementary school.



Baying for Blood



Lindsey Graham in the US Capitol on March 4, 2026. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images.

“He’s one of the dumbest human beings I’ve ever seen… you’ll end up starting World War III with a guy like that.”

That’s what Donald Trump had to say about Lindsey Graham during his first bid for president in 2016. Turns out Trump was right, as Graham has helped dog-walk him into his disastrous war in Iran – a baseless and illegal conflict that’s pierced the illusion that the president is a dovish exception to the bloodthirsty conservative movement.

Graham has made himself the very loud and very public face of the war effort – look no further than his tour of the Sunday show circuit yesterday, in which the arch-neoconservative could readily be mistaken for any number of Israeli cabinet officials who’ve been inciting genocide in Gaza for the past two-and-a-half-years.

The South Carolina senator shuffled between all the pro-war talking points: a desire for regime change; the need to stop Iran from a fictitious nuclear weapon; oil, oil, oil. And, all the while, he demanded that the US’s allies in the region – currently facing attacks as a result of a war sparked by the US itself – “get in the fight.”

On the joint war led by Israel and the US, Graham crowed that we should “just wait and see” what comes in the next two weeks. “We’re going to blow the hell out of these people,” he pledged, baying for blood in what was a not-so-veiled encouragement of war crimes. “When this regime goes down, we’re going to have a new Mideast,” he imagined, adding in a moment of raw imperial honesty: “We’re going to make a ton of money.” He noted that “Venezuela and Iran have 31% of the world’s oil reserves.”

Graham’s appetite for intervention did not end there. Brandishing a hat that read “Free Cuba” (adding to his collection of euphemistic hats of places he wants to invade), Graham promised: “Stay tuned. The liberation of Cuba is upon us. We’re marching through the world. We’re clearing out the bad guys. Cuba is next.”

He appeared on the Sunday shows after Israel bombed several oil facilities, igniting a massive firestorm in Tehran. As the flames engulfing the Iranian capital were being put out by toxic rains, Graham rejoiced: “Donald J. Trump saved the world from real chaos… Thank God Trump did this.”

Graham’s PR role for Trump’s war is all the more interesting given his apparent role in making the war happen. The efforts have been as pathetically paternalistic as Graham reportedly playing a word-association game with our man-child president, encouraging him to go to war.

“I say Franklin Roosevelt, what do you say?” Graham asked Trump, per the Wall Street Journal. The answer being: “You have nothing to fear but fear itself.” At one point, Graham reportedly asked Trump what his phrase would be. After Trump said he didn’t know, Graham reportedly offered: “Keep protesting, help is on the way,” in reference to Trump’s own social media post from January prodding Iranians to protest their government.

On the other side of the equation, according to the Journal, Graham has traveled to Israel several times in recent weeks, meeting with members of Israeli intelligence. “They’ll tell me things our own government won’t tell me,” Graham told the paper, which reported that Graham apparently coached Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on how to lobby Trump to attack Iran. (I repeat: Graham, a US senator, coached a foreign leader on how to get the leader of the United States to enter a war of choice on the foreign leader’s behalf; neither here nor there, the US Constitution defines treason “as levying war against the United States.”)

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Who is the real president here?

What’s so fascinating and bizarre is that in years past, it wasn’t just Trump issuing stark warnings about Graham – but Graham doing the same about Trump.

The South Carolina senator once said, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed… and we will deserve it.”

The man helping wage a holy war on an entire region once called Trump “a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot.”

And the uber-hawk helping turn Tehran into hell once suggested: “You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.”

Today, Trump and Graham are taking us all to hell, together.



🇮🇷Iran War Updates

Death tolls:

  • Iran: At least 1,255, including 200 children and 11 health workers, have been killed in US-Israeli strikes, Iran’s health minister told Al Jazeera today. More than 12,000 others have been reportedly injured.

  • Lebanon: Israel has killed nearly 400 people, including more than 80 children, Lebanon’s health officials said.

  • US troops: Seven US troops have been killed since the war began (an eighth service member died of a “health-related incident” in Kuwait, US Central Command said, without elaborating).

  • Israel: At least 11 people have been killed in Iranian attacks.

  • Elsewhere in the region: More than a dozen others have been killed across the region.

In other Iran war news….

  • Iran’s new leader: Ali Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was chosen as Iran’s next supreme leader. Khamenei, 56, lost his mother, wife, and one of his sisters in the attack that killed his father. He’s considered a hardliner and has fostered strong ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, sending a clear signal to the Trump administration, which wants to take control.

  • Israel's ‘unlawful’ use of white phosphorous: Israel used white phosphorous in residential areas of southern Lebanon – a violation of international law – last week, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today, based on seven photos the group verified as showing the use of the incendiary weapon. Israel has forcibly displaced more than half a million people across Lebanon as it continues to pound the country.

  • Oil price spike: For the first time in roughly four years, the price of oil has surged past $100 a barrel (it hit nearly $120 a barrel early Monday before falling to about $105 later in the day). On Sunday, Trump called the price surge “short-term” and “a small price to pay” for… world peace.

  • Dems demand probe: Six Democratic leaders in the Senate are demanding the Pentagon “fully and impartially” investigate the attack on an elementary school in Iran that killed 175 people, including scores of school girls. Trump on Saturday tried to blame Iran for the airstrike, even though many news outlets have assessed that the US was responsible.



🗞️ What You Need to Know

  • Leave them out of it: Actor and director Ben Stiller demanded the White House remove footage from ‘Tropic Thunder’ from its fascist war meme, and now Ben Downes, who voiced Master Chief in the video game ‘Halo,’ has too. The band Franz Ferdinand said of the Israeli military: “These warmongering murderers are using our music without our consent.”

  • Covering for Trump: Trump wore a baseball cap – one sold by his family business – to a dignified transfer for US soldiers who died as part of his war on Iran. Fox responded by airing old footage of a different, previous dignified transfer where he wasn’t wearing a hat, before calling it an inadvertent mistake.

  • Temper tantrum: Trump claimed he “will not sign other bills” until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act, his dangerous voter suppression legislation, adding that it “MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE.” While Republicans have lined up 50 votes for the measure, they do not appear to have the votes to remove the Senate filibuster.

  • “Worst of the worst”: The Wall Street Journal detailed how the Homeland Security Department is waging a war against US citizens in an effort to squash political opposition to its cruel and deadly terror campaign. The department has accused hundreds of legal observers, protesters, and witnesses of supposedly assaulting federal officers, but roughly half were never charged with assault and none have been convicted at trial.



🧠 Pop Quiz!

On average (across all the latest polls), what percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s war on Iran?

Keep your eyes out for the answer below!



‘When Will My Bunker Be Ready?’

A startling new piece in the Daily Telegraph, the right-wing British newspaper, profiles Rob Hubbard, a 63-year-old Texan who builds bunkers "designed to help customers survive drone attacks, ballistic missile strikes or even nuclear Armageddon." Apparently, business has never been better for his company, and he has been "inundated with calls" for new bunkers since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran.

But here's the bit that should grab your attention. Two of his new clients are members of Donald Trump's Cabinet.

“One of them texted me yesterday, asking me: ‘When will my bunker be ready?’” he told the Telegraph.

So, what do top US government officials know that the rest of us don't know?



🚨 Don’t Miss It!

Do you have unanswered questions about Trump’s illegal war in Iran? Join Mehdi and Prem TODAY at 11am ET (10am PT / 3pm GMT) for Zeteo’s ‘Ask the Editor.”

TUNE IN HERE



🌏 Anywhere But America

  • 🇵🇸 Don’t forget Gaza: Israel killed two Palestinian women and a 12-year-old girl in Khan Younis yesterday in a camp for forcibly displaced people. A young boy was also seriously wounded.

  • 🇨🇦 Liberals chart path for majority government: Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney announced special elections for three seats in the House of Commons, giving the Liberal Party a shot to secure a majority government and pass legislation without opposition if they win all three districts.

  • 🇸🇸 Civil war looms: The possibility of a civil war looms over South Sudan after thousands of civilians fled the town of Akobo following the army’s evacuation order. The South Sudan People’s Defense Forces cleared the area in preparation for imminent military operations as tensions escalate between the country and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition.

  • 🇨🇴 Colombia elections: Colombia's leftist ruling party and main opposition party appeared poised to win the largest number of seats in Congress in yesterday’s legislative ‌elections, Reuters reported, in an election marked by low voter turnout.

    .

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👀 Quote Unquote

“The U.S. spent 20 years and trillions of dollars replacing the Taliban with the Taliban. Trump replaced Ayatollah Khamenei with Ayatollah Khamenei in just 9 days. The most efficient U.S. president ever.”

That’s Iranian political scientist Ali Alizadeh on Twitter



😳 WTF?!

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com
BARTIROMO: Trump had an interesting exchange about troops on the ground. Moms are worried we're gonna have a draft and see their kids get involved in this. What do you want to say about Trum's plan for troops on the ground? LEAVITT: President Trump wisely does not remove options from the table
Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:21:44 GMT
View on Bluesky

Nothing to worry about… that’s just Trump’s White House press secretary refusing to rule out a draft for the president’s illegal war in Iran!

🧠 Trivia answer: 49%, according to an average of polls from analyst G. Elliott Morris.



📺 Sunday Show Roundup

  • Will a Bari Weiss takeover of CNN change anything? CNN’s Jake Tapper played devil’s advocate by telling Democratic Senator Chris Murphy that voting against a bill to fund Trump’s war in Iran “will be cast as… you voting against the troops.” Murphy responded, “Come on,” explaining, “The American people don’t want this war.

  • Corporate media is helping peddle Trump’s deranged narratives. On NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ host Kristen Welker pressed Iran’s foreign minister to respond to Trump’s claim that Iran was responsible for the deadly attack on an elementary school in Iran. She neglected to inform her audience that multiple news reports – including from NBC News! – indicated the US was to blame.

  • On ABC’s ‘This Week,’ UN Ambassador Mike Waltz attempted to support Trump’s claim that Iran was responsible for the elementary school attack by saying: “We’ve seen instances, like we saw in Gaza, for example, where Hamas immediately blamed the Israelis, the international community jumped on it, and it turned out it was an errant rocket from Hamas.”

  • After the ouster of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, Republican Senator Thom Tillis said Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s mass-deportation campaign, should be the next to go. “He's a big problem in this administration,” Tillis told CNN’s Jake Tapper.



🗓️ Mark Your Calendars

  • Monday, March 9: House Republicans are set to lay out a second budget reconciliation bill akin to the not-so “Big and Beautiful” megabill, which passed last July.

  • Tuesday, March 10: Georgia is set to hold a special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned in early January.

  • Wednesday, March 11: A federal court is set to hear arguments in an Epstein survivor’s class-action lawsuit against Bank of America for allegedly violating the “Trafficking Victims Protection Act,” among other federal and state laws. Bank of America claims that it did not intentionally obstruct the law when it banked Epstein’s wealthy friends.



ICYMI From Zeteo

Zeteo’s Melanie Riehl, Akshay Gokul, and Alexa Cohen contributed to this newsletter.



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