President Donald Trump, informed of Senator Lindsey Graham’s sudden death in Washington, gave a tribute that few could have predicted a decade ago. The South Carolina lawmaker died Saturday evening from an aortic rupture just one day after returning from meetings with Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
Donald Trump pays tribute to Lindsey Graham
Donald Trump took to Truth Social to honor his close ally and regular golf partner. “Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead!” Trump wrote. “He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!! DETAILS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO FOLLOW. So sad! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he added.
Trump later told NBC News that he had spoken with Graham hours before his passing. The senator “sounded great” but a little tired, Trump recalled. “He was a tough cookie in many ways. If he wanted to get something, if he thought he was right and he had people against him, he could be very tough, actually. But he was a good person,” the president said.
This marks the end of a political relationship that began with open hostility. During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Graham famously told CNN, “You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.” He had also labeled Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot” and warned he would destroy the party.
A make-up lunch in March 2017 changed everything. By 2018, the pair had become fast friends and regular partners on Trump’s golf courses. Graham later admitted defeat in his earlier analysis. “I said he was a xenophobic, race-baiting religious bigot. I ran out of adjectives,” he told CBS. “Well, the American people spoke, and they rejected my analysis,” Graham added.
Despite briefly breaking with Donald Trump after the 2021 Capitol riots, telling the Senate, “count me out, enough is enough,” Lindsey Graham voted against conviction in the impeachment trial and backed Trump’s 2024 election bid.
Then elected to the Senate in 2002, Graham was one of Washington’s most vocal interventionist voices. He strongly supported military aid to Ukraine, sanctions against Moscow, and aggressive action against Iran.
Now, Graham’s successor will be chosen in the November midterm elections.
