Senator Lindsey Graham took a swipe at Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday after the Georgia representative scorned those in the “America First/MAGA” movement who are “slobbering” for the United States to get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Graham swiped back at his Republican colleague, saying in an interview that Greene “doesn’t understand the threat” Iran poses.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition has fractured in recent days as the isolationist wing, which includes Greene, split with Iran hawks like Graham over the Iran conflict.
The MAGA battle over Trump’s policy vis-à-vis Iran has been happening for months as the administration worked to negotiate a new nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic.
But the infighting kicked into high gear last week, when Israel launched a number of airstrikes at Iran that wiped out its military and intelligence chain-of-command, destroyed nuclear infrastructure and took out key scientists working on Iran’s nuclear program.
The strikes, which have killed more than 220 people in Iran since Friday, marked the most serious escalation of the conflict to date. Iran has responded with retaliatory strikes of its own that have killed 24 people in Israel and injured more than 500.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
What To Know
“Everyone is finding out who are real America First/MAGA and who were fake and just said it [because] it was popular,” Greene wrote Monday on X, formerly Twitter. “Unfortunately the list of fakes are becoming quite long and exposed themselves quickly.”
“Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA,” she added.
Fox News host John Roberts asked Graham to weigh in on Greene’s remarks during a Tuesday interview, noting that there’s “opposition within your own party to all of this.”
The South Carolina Republican quickly cut in, saying, “You could put them in a phone booth. Those Republicans who are opposed to supporting Israel against Iran, you could literally put in a phone booth.”
Robert continued: “Marjorie Taylor Greene says anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First or MAGA,” Roberts told Graham, reading from Greene’s post. “Wishing for murder of innocent people is disgusting. We are sick and tired of foreign wars.”
“Yeah, I mean, I like Marjorie, but to be honest with you, she doesn’t understand the threat, in my view,” Graham said. “If you don’t understand that Iran, a religious theocracy, religious Nazis, would use a nuclear weapon to kill all the Jews, you don’t listen to what they say.”
“They’re a threat to us, they’re a threat to the state of Israel,” Graham added. “It is not in the world’s interest to give this religious fanatic a nuclear weapon.”
“Somebody’s got to deal with it,” the senator said, adding that Trump “is the right man” to do so and that the president has “been very measured.”
He noted that Trump set a 60-day timeframe for negotiating a new nuclear deal and that the administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, repeatedly met with the Iranians to come to an agreement.
“They tried very hard to get Iran to the table. I appreciate reaching out and trying to do this diplomatically,” Graham said. “I appreciate Witkoff, I appreciate President Trump trying. Well, it’s not working. You can’t have unless both people want peace, and what the Iranians want is to kill all the Jews and kill us, and the answer is no, we’re not going to let them do that.”
Trump, for his part, has put out mixed messages about whether the U.S. will get involved, or if it’s been involved in the conflict since last week’s strikes.
“We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” he posted to Truth Social on Tuesday morning.
The president also called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” writing in another post: “We know exactly where [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] is hiding…We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least for now.”
What People Are Saying
Senator Lindsey Graham, earlier this week on X: “No one can say that President @realDonaldTrump has not tried to seek peace regarding Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Iran. He has gone the extra mile and I appreciate that. However, you have to have willing partners to make peace. Iran played the same old game with the wrong guy. God bless Israel, God bless the United States and God bless President Trump.”
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, on X: “Real America First/MAGA wants world peace for all people and doesn’t want our military killed and forever injured physically and mentally. We love our U.S. military and love them helping to secure our borders and our cities for the defense of OUR PEOPLE AND OUR COUNTRY.
She added: “We have spent TRILLIONS in the Middle East and we have dealt with the aftermath of death, blown apart bodies, never ending suicides, and disabling PTSD. All because they told us propaganda as to why we must sacrifice our own to defend some other country’s borders and some other country’s borders.”
What Happens Next
The U.S. has taken a defensive posture in the conflict so far, intercepting some of the missiles Iran has fired toward Israel. But Israeli officials and some hawkish Republicans have called for the U.S. to play a bigger role, including by giving Israel bunker-busting munitions, without which Israel cannot destroy Iran’s main nuclear facility deep underground.
Axios reported that Trump is seriously considering launching a strike at Iran’s underground facilities, and two Israeli officials told the website that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes the U.S. will join the war in the coming days.
Update 6/17/25, 6:02 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
