Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamGraham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Fox's Napolitano: Supreme Court confirmation hearings will be 'World War III of political battles' Grassley, Ernst pledge to 'evaluate' Trump's Supreme Court nominee MORE (R-S.C.) suggested Thursday that President Trump's attacks on GOP lawmakers are part of his political strategy.

"Trump is making a political decision here to be presidential, listen to the generals, and to go back to his base and fire them up and put pressure on the Senate and the House to do things he wants," Graham told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in response to a question about CNN anchor Don Lemon calling the president "unhinged" and "petty."

"He’s not the first president to use the bully pulpit to try to push the country in a particular direction or to keep his base on board."

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Graham said Trump is making a conscious decision to let his base know "that when I said I want to build the wall, I meant to build the wall."

"He’s running against Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellGraham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Trump puts Supreme Court fight at center of Ohio rally The Memo: Dems face balancing act on SCOTUS fight MORE and Lindsey Graham and others," Graham said.

"The Congress is very unpopular, particularly with the Republican base, so there’s nothing unhinged about it. It’s a political strategy that I’m not so sure is smart, but it’s a very thought-out strategy. There’s nothing crazy about it."

Trump has gone after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) several times on Twitter.

On Thursday, he tweeted that the only problem he has with the Kentucky Republican is that he failed to repeal and replace ObamaCare after talking about it for seven years.

A New York Times report earlier this week said Trump and McConnell hadn't talked in weeks and McConnell had said privately he is not sure if Trump can recover from a long series of controversies.

Trump earlier this month also targeted Graham over the South Carolina senator's criticism of the president's response to the violent clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

“Publicity seeking Lindsey Graham falsely stated that I said there is moral equivalency between the KKK, neo-Nazis & white supremacists and people like Ms. Heyer. Such a disgusting lie. He just can't forget his election trouncing.The people of South Carolina will remember!” Trump tweeted earlier this month.