Footage from a new documentary titled “Lindsey’s Game,” filmed over the past three years by director Akhen Holder, revealed Sunday the intense pressure campaign Senator Lindsey Graham waged to push Trump into war with Iran.
The footage showed Graham’s direct influence on President Donald Trump, who told Graham immediately after the strikes began in February that it was “the best thing I’ve ever done.” In one of the film’s most striking moments, recorded from his Senate office on March 4, Graham prepared to fly to Florida to convince Trump to join Israel in bombing Hezbollah in Lebanon.
But an urgent phone call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped the move. Netanyahu made clear that opening a full front against Hezbollah while fighting Iran would be too fast and would serve the other side. Graham accepted his advice and called it “good advice.”
International Connections, Political Frustration, and Ambitions Until the End
The footage showed Graham crisscrossing the globe and meeting with leaders including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, aiming to advance his policy and military initiatives.
Graham was also recorded conducting sensitive calls with figures like former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, expressing frustration that the Trump administration wasn’t selling the war enough to the public and speaking candidly about the key figures around the president.
During the final weeks of his life, Graham showed extreme exhaustion as he pushed to remove the Iranian regime, end the war in Ukraine, and forge new regional alliances.
Despite public criticism of his hardline political stance and fluctuations in his relationship with Trump—including his disappointment over signing a preliminary agreement with Iran in June—Graham remained amused and satisfied with his centrality in power centers until his last day, telling the film crew: “There’s no way I can die yet.”