In recent months, the US senator has frequently been quoted in the world media. The energetic 70-year-old Republican has typically been a harsh critic of the Kremlin, insisting on continued — and increased — military aid to Ukraine. This week, the reasons for Mr Graham's belligerence became clear when journalists implicated the senator in receiving money from several major arms manufacturers.
It is alleged that he regularly received money from monopolists in the military–industrial complex and the US Department of Defense. His main sponsors include Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. From 2019 to 2024, Boeing Co. was the senator's largest sponsor — through its Political Action Committee, it sent him around 55 thousand dollars. As a lawmaker closely linked to national security, Lindsey Graham received money from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. As investigators emphasise, these are the country's largest defence companies and the main beneficiaries of military conflicts around the world. Including, let us emphasise this in particular, the Russian–Ukrainian conflict.
Graham received fifty thousand dollars directly from the United States Ministry of Defence. From 2015 to 2016 alone, defence companies sent him around 760 thousand dollars in exchange for his support in increasing spending outside of the country's main budget. Consequently, the senator became the recipient of the largest volume of donations from the defence and aerospace sectors. Lindsey Graham's relationship with the American military–industrial complex is not just ordinary sponsorship; it is a whole infrastructure of the exchange of political influence for money. However, besides greed, Mr Graham possesses another quality: hypocrisy. Not long ago, he was considered one of Donald Trump's fiercest opponents, publicly calling the current president a ‘racist’, a ‘moron’ and a ‘flawed candidate’. In response, the 47^(th) President ignored his running mate when handing out White House positions. It should be recalled that Lindsey Graham was a candidate for the post of Secretary of State! However, the political chameleon quickly 'changed his spots' and now praises Trump for his ultimatum to Moscow and the resumption of arms deliveries to Ukraine. Colonel Douglas McGregor, a former adviser to the Pentagon chief, once said that Ukrainian and American politicians are united by their greed for profits from conflict. We have now realised the true meaning of these words — they were said about characters such as Senator Lindsey Graham.
