I’m getting a lot of questions from readers about Lindsey Graham’s recent trip to Ukraine - why he was there - and if Trump knew he was there - while peace was supposedly being negotiated by Ukraine, Russia and the US in Istanbul.
Before I begin, I’m not a fan of Lindsey Graham - he’s a RINO Democrat - but he’s not stupid. I’m not writing this newsletter to advocate for what Graham is doing. I’m trying to explain WHY he is doing it and what part, if any, President Trump is playing in that. The only way I can discern that is to look at all the evidence in sequence and connect dots. This is my educated guess.
Follow along, please. This is a little complicated so I’ll try to make it as clear as possible:
Graham traveled to Ukraine in late May 2025, accompanied by Blumenthal - his 9th trip to the country in the past decade to meet with Zelenskyy - just days before Ukraine launched a surprise drone attack against Russia.
The trip reportedly cost $800,000 and occurred while President Trump was actively seeking to broker a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.
As I’ve said for years, and written about many times, I believe that Graham, and many swamp creatures guided by the CIA - including Biden, Clinton, Romney, McCain, Obama, Pelosi, and more - have laundered money through Ukraine for years for their donors & the CIA through USAID.
Trump knows that too - and that’s one of the things he’s trying to put an end to and that’s one of the reasons why the swamp wants him gone. He’s tired of the CIA and the swamp using Ukraine to launder our hard-earned tax dollars back to themselves. I wrote about that in 2020, before the war started, if you’d like to know more details:
Romney, Kerry, Biden, McCain, Pelosi, Schiff, Mueller, Soros, Brennan, Obama and Clinton are all tied to sketchy Ukraine money laundering deals. That's why they needed to take down President Trump.
If you didn't realize it - it's NOT just the left that is corrupt. The RINOs and the KOCH Libertarians are just as bad! They all work together to pay off their donors with our money and launder it back to themselves!
Graham and Blumenthal’s visit took place immediately before Ukraine launched a large-scale drone attack on Russian military airbases. The attack targeted multiple Russian installations, including strategic bomber bases. Ukrainian security services smuggled drones into Russia using trucks with retractable roofs, launching them remotely near Russian military sites. The attack had been planned for at least 18 months. Think about how our enemies could use this drone attack method against American military bases, power plants & ships - that’s the topic of another newsletter.
The Ukrainian drone offensive was described as unprecedented in scale and effectiveness. Ukrainian sources claimed the attack destroyed up to 41 Russian strategic bombers—about one-third of Russia’s total. The operation, dubbed by some as "Operation Spider’s Web," was likened to a "Pearl Harbor" moment for Russia.
Senator Graham publicly praised Ukraine’s ingenuity and effectiveness in executing the drone strikes. He called for tougher sanctions against Russia and its trading partners, like China and Iran, particularly those buying Russian oil. He also called on Trump to use China to help stop the Ukraine-Russia war and both Graham & Gingrich said that Putin will delay, delay, delay unless forced into action.
When asked if President Trump knew that Ukraine was going to launch the surprise drone strike, the White House said no. I don’t buy that - I buy plausible deniability.
Why do I think that? Because of three things that Trump posted right before and after the drone strikes.
Right before, Trump posted:
TRUMP: “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever. I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!
Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop. This is a War that would never have started if I were President. This is Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not “Trump’s,” I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred. We'll know soon if Putin really wants peace in two weeks - or if he plans to go for all of Ukraine."
TRUMP: “What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!”
So, right BEFORE the drone strikes - Trump told Putin that he has been STOPPING BAD THINGS from happening to Russia. That tells me he green-lighted the drone strike (bad thing) after Putin failed to agree to peace.
Trump’s first substantive reaction AFTER the drone strike was to have another phone call with Putin. Trump described their 65-minute conversation as “good” but clarified it would not lead to “immediate peace.” He reported that Putin “very strongly” indicated he would respond to Ukraine’s attacks on Russian airfields.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “I just finished speaking, by telephone, with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia. The call lasted approximately one hour and 15 minutes. We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides. It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.
We also discussed Iran, and the fact that time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons, which must be made quickly! I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement. President Putin suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion. It is my opinion that Iran has been slow-walking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!”
Putin’s aide confirmed that Trump assured Putin that he had no advance knowledge of the drone operation.
After the second phone call with Putin, President Trump posted an opinion written by a former speechwriter for Bush. It basically said that Lindsey Graham’s sanctions bill in the Senate could be used by Trump & Congress to force Putin toward peace and could force China & Iran to cut off Russia. Nobody is really reporting on this and I think it’s the most important piece of the puzzle.
THIESSEN: “Instead of negotiating peace with President Donald Trump, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is escalating his attacks against innocent Ukrainian civilians.
“He’s sending rockets into cities and killing people,” Trump said this week, “I don’t like it at all.”
It is clear that Putin does not want peace; he has to be forced to end the war. To do that, Trump needs greater leverage. Congress can give it to him by passing the Sanctioning Russia Act, a bipartisan effort led by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas).
The bill, which has a whopping 82 co-sponsors in the Senate, would impose “bone-crushing” sanctions on Russia. Right now, Russia is suffering double-digit inflation, skyrocketing interest rates and catastrophic labor shortages. The only thing keeping the country’s economy from collapse is revenue from oil and gas exports.
This legislation would shut off the most important source of cash for the Kremlin by barring energy transactions with sanctioned Russian banks (which President Joe Biden allowed to continue), and imposing a 500 percent secondary tariff on any country that purchases Russian-origin uranium, oil, natural gas, petroleum, or petroleum products and petrochemical products. This would give Trump the power to effectively drive Russian energy sales from the global market, which would crush the Russian economy and deny Putin the funds to continue his aggression against Ukraine.
Most important, it would provide Trump with strong bipartisan backing as he tries, one last time, to persuade Putin to stop his massacres of Ukrainian civilians and negotiate a permanent end to his brutal, senseless war.
Signing the bill does not mean Trump has to implement the sanctions immediately.
The proposed sanctions take effect only after the president issues a formal determination that Putin is engaging in sanctionable acts as described in the bill, such as “refusing to negotiate a peace agreement with Ukraine.”
If Trump is not comfortable making that determination, there is another option: He does not have to sign the bill immediately after Congress approves it. Once a bill is sent to the president, he has 10 days to sign or veto it. But nothing requires Congress to send the president a bill it has passed. Indeed, after it is approved in the House and the Senate, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) can hold the bill at the desk indefinitely, rather than sending it to the White House — giving Trump as much time as he needs before signing it.
There is precedent for this. In 1998, both the House and Senate both approved Sen. Jesse Helms’s (R-North Carolina) legislation paying U.S. arrears to the United Nations in exchange for reforms. But President Bill Clinton threatened to veto it over some modest pro-life policy provisions in the bill. Helms had the bill held at the desk, hoping to convince Clinton to change his mind. When Clinton refused, Helms waited for months and had it sent it to the president for his promised veto at the most embarrassing moment — the day he addressed the U.N. General Assembly.
Thune could use the same procedure to hold the Russia sanctions bill at the desk after both houses pass it, this time sending it to Trump at the most opportune moment.
This would dramatically increase Trump’s leverage with Putin, giving him a sword of Damocles to hang over the Russian leader’s head — backed by an overwhelming, bipartisan majority in Congress. It would empower Trump and strengthen his hand in the negotiations, by giving him the power to inflict crippling, sanctions against Russia at a moment of his choosing. And it will underscore that the United States is united politically with Trump in backing the approach.
The bill’s passage would make Putin’s choice clear: Agree to peace or suffer the most destructive sanctions ever imposed by the United States — sanctions that would send his already struggling economy into a tailspin. It would also create an incentive for China, India and other countries that would be subject to secondary tariffs to press Putin to agree to peace.
Indeed, Congress could give Trump even more leverage by adding a provision to the sanctions legislation that would authorize the sale of U.S. weapons to Ukraine, using Foreign Military Financing (FMF) direct loans, like those we provide to our allies and partners around the world. Such loans would cost taxpayers nothing — indeed they would earn a profit, because the loans come with interest that must be paid to the U.S. government. Congress could also create a transfer authority that permits frozen Russian assets to be used by Ukraine to buy U.S. weapons.
The combination of sanctions and arms is precisely what Trump promised he would do if Putin did not agree to peace. In March, he declared: “If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault. … I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia.” And in an interview with me last year at Mar-a-Lago, he said that if Putin refused his peace efforts, he would give Ukraine more weapons than they’ve ever gotten before.
Right now, Putin is hoping that Trump will grow frustrated with the peace process, throw up his hands and move on to other things — leaving Putin free to prosecute his brutal war without the United States supporting Ukraine or penalizing him. This misperception by Putin is one reason Trump has not been able to persuade Moscow to agree to a ceasefire. Putin appears convinced that all he has to do is sit tight, agree to nothing and the U.S. will reward him by giving him a free hand.
Putin needs to be disabused of this notion, and shown that if Russia says “no” to peace, but Ukraine says “yes,” Trump will punish Russia and arm Ukraine. Approving a bill to do just that would make clear to Putin that rejecting Trump’s peace efforts is not an option he wants to choose — and provide a demonstration of political consensus and resolve that will, hopefully, enable Trump to finally negotiate the peace he seeks.
Trump has been right to give Putin time and make every effort to negotiate a voluntary end to the war. But Putin has made it abundantly clear that he won’t stop his conquest willingly; he needs to be coerced. A bipartisan majority in Congress stands ready to give Trump the tools to coerce Putin, and impose severe consequences on Russia if Putin still refuses. The votes are there. All Trump has to do is give Congress the green light.”
Graham’s Senate bill - pushing Russian sanctions - was introduced two months ago and Trump knew all about it. Trump said many times that he kept Putin from invading Ukraine in his 1st term by cutting oil prices and his money flow. Biden gave Putin lots of cash to enable the invasion while Obama gave lots of cash to Iran.
Graham’s “Sanctioning Russia Act” aims to impose sanctions and other measures on Russia if the Russian government refuses to negotiate a peace agreement with Ukraine, violates any such agreement, or initiates another military invasion of Ukraine.
It was introduced in the House of Representatives on April 1, 2025, and referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, along with other relevant committees. It would impose 500% tariffs on any country that buys Russian fossil fuels, aiming to isolate Moscow and disrupt its revenue streams. This includes oil, uranium, natural gas, petroleum products, or petrochemical products that originated in the Russian Federation.
Additionally, the bill prohibits U.S. investments in Russia’s energy sector and blocks financial messaging services (such as SWIFT) from serving sanctioned Russian banks.
The bill is primarily aimed at holding China accountable for purchasing discounted Russian oil from the "shadow fleet." It has 81 Senators willing to sign.
After Graham & Trump’s comments - the former President of Russia said this:
MEDVEDEV: "The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else's delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of the neo-Nazi regime.
The Russian Army is pushing forward and will continue to advance. Everything that needs to be blown up will be blown up, and those who must be eliminated will be.
Regarding Trump's words about Putin "playing with fire" and "really bad things" happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!"
That’s pretty clear to me.
Trump then began a counter-offensive against Russia using China saying this:
TRUMP: “Two weeks ago China was in grave economic danger! The very high Tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to TRADE into the United States marketplace which is, by far, number one in the World. We went, in effect, COLD TURKEY with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, “civil unrest.”
I saw what was happening and didn’t like it, for them, not for us. I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn’t want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
Trump then signaled to Russia, China and the world that our military was stronger than ever!
TRUMP: “Just had a great talk with our Military Leaders. It is the strongest Military we have ever had, including the fact that we are stockpiling weapons at a rate never seen before by our Country. Hopefully, however, we will never have to use them!”
Then, today, Trump recapped his conversation with Xi of China:
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi, of China, discussing some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, Trade Deal. The call lasted approximately one and a half hours, and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries. There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products. Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined. We will be represented by Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer.
During the conversation, President Xi graciously invited the First Lady and me to visit China, and I reciprocated. As Presidents of two Great Nations, this is something that we both look forward to doing. The conversation was focused almost entirely on TRADE. Nothing was discussed concerning Russia/Ukraine, or Iran. We will inform the Media as to scheduling and location of the soon to be meeting. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
After this, Lindsey Graham said he would help the Senate pass President Trump’s OBBB. Think that was a coincidence? I do not.
Do I know what will happen next? No. It’s obvious that Russia, China & Iran know that it is in everybody’s best interests to keep them apart and unable to fund each other and they are constantly testing that. They each know they are better off forming alliances with the US but they don’t know how to do that without alienating their allies. Everybody knows that - but the trick is to figure out the best way to accomplish that without war.
PRAY FOR PEACE. PRAY FOR WISDOM. PRAY FOR SANITY. JUST PRAY.
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