Unlikely Trump ally convinced president to strike Iran to preserve legacy: 'He's all in'

Donald Trump's order to strike Iran had been pitched to him as a way to salvage his legacy by an unlikely ally.

The president's administration carried out strikes on the Middle Eastern country earlier this week, confirming the death of ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the process. Six US military personnel have also been killed in counterstrikes carried out by Iran. The bombing campaign on Iran came to be when Lindsey Graham took Trump to task on what he wanted to be his legacy.

Graham, who had previously condemned Trump as a "race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot" has since become a close ally of the president during Trump's second term.

Speaking with Politico, Graham said, "We were thinking about this early, early on about how Iran is a spoiler for expanding the Abraham Accords and stability in the Mideast. I told him before he took office… if you can collapse this terrorist regime, that’s Berlin Wall stuff."

Graham also claims he managed to cut through the naysayers on bombing Iran and convinced the president it was the right course of action to back Israel in their campaign.

He said, "There was a real fight not to do it. Let Israel do it by itself, or just not do much. So we talked a lot about this: ‘Mr. President, you want to have your fingerprints on this. You want them to know America will fight.' He’s a hard sell, but when you sell him, he’s all in."

Graham went on to suggest a regime change would ultimately benefit the US, and that if the new Iranian government takes the same stance as ayatollah Khamenei, the military may intervene again.

"If they want to reconstitute their country, to build more nuclear weapons and more missiles to hit us, we’ll treat the new people like we did the old people," he said. "I just don’t believe it. I think they’re going to find a way to ... be a different country.

"'You break it. You own it.' That may be true for a consignment shop, but it's not true for foreign policy. If there's a threat, break it."