Lindsey Graham in ABC This Week interviews during 2020

On Free Trade: Protect the American steel industry from Chinese dumping

GRAHAM: We're trying to get China to act better and if you get into a contest with China, you're going to have to see this thing through. The Chinese buy a lot of American soybeans and pork, they've got 1.2 billion people to feed. I'd tell these people to go to the Rust Belt and see what's happened in that part of America due to Chinese unfair trade practices. I support President Trump pushing back against commodity dumping, intellectual property theft, currency manipulation, and we've got to see this thing through. We're trying to protect the American steel industry from Chinese dumping, we're trying to protect the American high tech community from Chinese intellectual property theft. And one of the ways they can fight back is to hit us in the agricultural sector. So there is no way for us to address China without absorbing some pain here.

On Immigration: No northern border wall, yet there's no illegal Canadians

GRAHAM: Well, he'll be the third president to do so. But you're not going to secure a border just by adding National Guard troops. You got to go to the root cause of this. The [refugee migrant] caravans come from the triangle countries, Honduras and Guatemala in particular because the conditions are so bad. If you don't have comprehensive immigration reform, you will never fix this problem. We have two borders, one with Canada, one with Mexico. I've never met an illegal Canadian. The point is that Canada has a sound economy, people from the south of us do not have sound economies and if you don't fix the economic magnet, you'll never solve the immigration problem. So building a wall alone won't do anything.

On Immigration: DACA recipients came here at age; this is their home

GRAHAM: The court is probably going to rule for the president down the road that he can terminate DACA. That creates some chaos for the DACA recipients who came here on the average age of 6 with nowhere else to go. This is their country. There's a deal to take care of them and get the border wall we desperately need, plus interior enforcement, to make us safer.

Q: And you feel confident that will go through?

GRAHAM: I'm hopeful it will because if we fail, it's just a disaster for the DACA recipients and for our national security. And 70 percent of the American people want us to do both. It may fail, but I believe we owe it to the American people to try again. And I'm going to try again. And I think the president is open-minded to trying again.

On War & Peace: Destroy Assad's air force; create safe zones in Syria

GRAHAM: Well, it's a defining moment in his presidency, because he has challenged Assad in the past not to use chemical weapons. So Assad is at it again. They see our resolve breaking. They see our determination to stay in Syria waning. And it's no accident they used chemical weapons. But President Trump can reset the table here. To me, I would destroy Assad's air force. I would create safe zones in Syria where people can come back to their country from the surrounding area and live a better life. Train up Syrians to take on Assad so we can negotiate in Geneva from a position of strength.

On War & Peace: Keep US troops in Syria so ISIS and Iran can't come back

GRAHAM: Complete utter disaster to leave before the fight is done. Have we learned nothing when what happens when you leave too soon? We pulled our troops out of Iraq. ISIS came back. President Trump made a speech in Riyadh, saying two things: "I stand with you against Iran; and I stand with you to defeat radical Islam." If we leave Syria by the mere passage of time, we undercut that policy. ISIS will come back. You will be giving Damascus to the Iranians. They'll have a land bridge from Tehran to Beirut. Syria will be occupied by Hezbollah, Russia, Iran, a nightmare for our friends in Israel. You've got to stick with it. You need a holding force as part of a regional force. If Americans are not part of a holding force, ISIS will come back. And there is no strategy by the Trump administration to counter Iranian expansion. And you need a strategy to deal with Iran just as much as ISIS.