Lindsey Graham says Trump is the '1st president in 40 years' to understand Iran

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Fox News)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was quick to praise President Trump on Tuesday night during an appearance on Fox News, saying he is "methodical in his thinking" and is the "first president in the last 40 years who really understands the Iranians."

Graham was interviewed by host Sean Hannity just a few hours after Iran launched more than a dozen missiles against two Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops. Graham said he has "complete confidence" that Trump will keep service members safe, and thanked the troops for serving as "the virtual wall between us and radical Islam" and keeping "these bastards at bay."

The attacks were "an act of war," Graham said, and he's waiting to see what Trump, who has "one of the best national security teams that I've seen since I've been up here," will do in response. The president doesn't want a regime change, Graham continued, but he does want to see Iranian officials change their behavior. "We are dealing with religious Nazis," he said. "They really mean it when they want to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews. They've been disrupting the Mideast for 40 years. It needs to stop." Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.