President Donald Trump’s trusted military leader, Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, who heads the Joint Chiefs of Staff, struck a slightly different tone from the president when addressing Russia’s intentions under Vladimir Putin. Specifically, Caine suggested skepticism about trusting Putin as a genuine partner in future negotiations.
During a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the defense budget, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina asked pointed questions of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Caine. He wanted to know if they believed Iran would use a nuclear weapon against Israel, whether China would make a move on Taiwan, and if Putin’s ambitions would end with Ukraine.
“I don’t believe he is,” Caine said in response to the question about Putin stopping at Ukraine.
“Remains to be seen,” Hegseth replied when asked the same question.
“It doesn’t remain to be seen,” Graham fired back. He emphasized that Putin “tells everybody around what he wants to do.”
Graham, who has faced criticism—including from fellow conservatives—for his aggressive foreign policy stances, urged the defense leaders to take the rhetoric from adversaries like Iran, China, and Russia seriously, pointing to their public declarations.
“I like what you’re doing; I just think we gotta get this stuff right,” Graham said, after noting what he perceived as reluctance from Hegseth and Caine to firmly state that Iran would deploy a nuclear weapon against Israel.
“The point is,” Graham added, “we need to hit the enemy before they hit us.”
One of the key components of Trump’s legislative priorities is a substantial increase in military funding, which is being debated as part of his sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Fiscal conservatives have criticized the bill for raising the debt limit and not sufficiently rolling back spending levels that surged under President Joe Biden.
Even as Trump pushes for robust defense funding, not everyone in his orbit supports Graham’s more hardline proposals. Among the dissenters is retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who has taken issue with Graham’s calls for regime change—and even hints at assassinating Putin.
“I urge President Trump to also distance himself from demonstrated warmongers in our own government, chief among whom is U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina,” Flynn wrote in a sharp statement over the weekend. “Those who love wars fought by others are no friends of America and have no entitlement to be friends of the president.”
{Matzav.com}
