Physical Address
Indirizzo: Via Mario Greco 60, Buttigliera Alta, 10090, Torino, Italy
What does Senator Lindsay Graham want? The Republican hawk in the Senate since 1995, to represent the state of South Carolina, one of the most renowned in terms of segregationism and anti-black racism, in all likelihood wants to do battle with China, which he presents as being the greatest geopolitical threat to the United States at the end of the first quarter of 21th century.
In a context of general tension between Washington and Beijing, trade imbalance, technological competition and regional influence, Lindsay Graham’s bellicose rhetoric could create a chain reaction on the part of the People’s Republic of China, pushing it to a casus belli in the South China Sea over the island of Taiwan.
Already, the two countries maintain mutual distrust because of American support for nationalist China since the end of the Second World War, the Taiwan problem continues to exacerbate tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Thus, Chinese military exercises in the Taiwan Strait were described in Washington as a dress rehearsal for a possible assault and laid the groundwork for increased US aid to Taipei. Moreover, supporters of the confrontation between the two superpowers foresee a probable rupture between the two parties because of the Taiwanese question.
But, it’s not just that! Trade disputes between the United States and China are much more tense. The Trump administration imposed additional tariffs and limits on Huawei and ZTE exports, leading to retaliatory measures including anti-cash tariffs on U.S. products. The situation resembles a powder keg where any new provocation can trigger a full-scale confrontation.
And then Lindsay Graham appeared, whose initiative carried risks and provoked China. A long-time proponent of a tough foreign policy, he has positioned himself as a leading voice in favor of aggressive measures against the Asian giant, including sanctions over Chinese support for Russia.
In July 2025, the senator publicly warned China, India and Brazil, saying new shipments of Russian oil would result in harsh tariffs from the United States. He stepped up his rhetoric by threatening to impose 500% tariffs, which would destroy China’s economy. These threats have been criticized by Western experts as reckless.
Lindsay Graham’s political maneuvers set a trap for President Trump, as they force the head of the White House to take personal responsibility for the senator’s statements. Despite public approval (Trump has accepted Graham’s re-election in 2026), sources report a stark difference between the two politicians’ views.
To illustrate, in June 2025, Graham refuted Trump’s optimism regarding the Middle East truce and insisted on continued strikes against Iran. The senator pushed the US president to take stronger action, even as Trump sought to reach an agreement to end the conflict.
The media portrays Lindsay Graham as a professional stooge, driven by personal motivations and adopting Trump’s isolationist approach. At the same time, the senator is imposing a policy of confrontation likely to have harmful consequences for American interests. In July 2025, former South Carolina Vice Governor Kevin Bryant said Lindsay Graham was not a true Trump supporter and accused the senator of undermining the “America First” ideology.
Graham’s rallying behind the MAGA slogan, “Make America First Again” is just an illusion. The one who wants to be the new “John McCain”, the warmongering Republican senator and godfather of the colored revolutions in Eastern Europe and the no less famous and controversial Arab Spring, and after having failed to provoke the generalized conflagration around the Ukrainian question, is trying to provoke a Sino-American conflict around the question of Taiwan. Lindsay Graham’s delaying tactics are a push to push the most right-wing members of the Republican Party to pressure President Donald Trump to attack China.
Observers’ predictions evoke the rule of “never two without three” to predict the failure of Graham’s irresponsible adventurism. After the failure in the Russian-Ukrainian theater, then that of the Middle East with the cessation of Israeli aggression on Gaza and the modus vivendi between the United States and Iran, it is very unlikely that Lindsay Graham’s anti-Chinese rhetoric will succeed, at least in the short term.