Hours before his sudden death from an aortic dissection Lindsey Graham reportedly joked in conversation with an unnamed person, "I can't die now. I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out and do Israeli-Saudi normalization.” Graham could see that these were important things (the trees) but he could not see the painfully obvious reasons (the forest) why those things cannot happen in this moment.

The reason is that the presidential administration he loyally served and the President he fawned over, Donald Trump has created an environment in which those goals have no chance of succeeding. How far would Graham go to lionize Trump? He literally said, ‘Mr President, You’re Not Far Behind God.’

Would increased sanctions against Russia help. Yes such sanctions could help immensely. Sanctions, real sanctions have the capacity to force Russia to the negotiating table for serious peace talks. Graham was right. But his problem was Trump. Trump has long resisted calls for strengthened sanctions on Russia. Opting instead to literally roll out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin on U.S. soil.

Israeli-Saudi normalization? In fairness this became much more difficult after the Hamas attacks of October 7th. From all available evidence one key factor for Hamas in the the attacks was a determination that a normalization of relations between Israel and the Saudi Kingdom was unacceptable and had to be stopped. Graham was right. normalization was better but again Graham had the same problem, Trump. As bad as October 7th was for the prospects of normalization the decision by Trump to green-light Netanyahu’s plan to assassinate Iranian Supreme Court Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was at least equally bad. You can’t do normalization with bombs falling. It just won’t work.

This of course dooms preemptively Graham’s third objective, getting Iran sorted out. Again Graham is trying to pull in the opposite direction Trump is determined to go in. There cannot be progress on the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz as long as Trump and Netanyahu insist on war. The manner in which the attack on Iran was conceived and undertaken almost ensures that the conflict will have no expedient path to resolution.

Lindsey Graham convinced himself, literally until the moment of his death that he could convince Trump not to be Trump. Graham’s blind faith in the great white American way was his undoing. Faith can be a powerful thing. But when separated from an ability reconcile the obvious can also be a dangerous thing.

Graham had the chance to be a true Senate Independent. Instead he ultimately chose to anchor himself to a false idol.