Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who died unexpectedly on Saturday at age 71, was an unlikely GOP leader in the age of President Donald Trump.
Graham could easily have become irrelevant once Trump became the unquestioned head of the Republican Party.
The South Carolina senator was a top ally of longtime Sen. John McCain. They and Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman formed the hawkish “Three Amigos.” McCain and Trump were not close.
Neither initially were Trump and Graham. “If we nominate Trump,” Graham memorably predicted, “we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it.” Trump gave out Graham’s cell phone number at a 2015 rally after the South Carolinian called him a “jackass.” Graham made a video destroying the device, saying, “This is for all the veterans.”
Graham’s 2016 presidential campaign went nowhere. He never made it to the main debate stage, which was reserved for higher-polling candidates, and dropped out before the South Carolina primary, which Trump won by a comfortable margin.
It looked like Graham and his brand of hawkish foreign policy was going to be completely marginalized within Trump’s GOP. McCain was sidelined before his death in 2018. So eventually were similarly inclined Republicans who had served in Trump’s first administration, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, fellow South Carolinian and former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and former national security advisers John Bolton and H.R. McMaster.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, as did numerous alumni of the McCain and George W. Bush teams. Graham’s 2016 presidential campaign manager advised the transition team for Harris and Joe Biden in 2020. Many of the leading Never Trumpers hailed from Graham’s wing of the party. And feuds with Trump have cost a wide range of GOP members of Congress their seats.
Instead, Graham forged a close personal relationship with Trump and arguably managed it better than any Republican lawmaker over the past decade. This kept Graham at the forefront of the party and movement even as populism, nationalism, and “America First” swept the GOP.
“He’s a tough one to lose. He was great — he was unique in every way. … He was like a member of the family to me,” Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning. “It’s very tough.” Graham had been scheduled to make his 54th appearance on the influential Sunday talk show before his death.
On Truth Social, Trump hailed Graham as “one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known.”
“Lindsey had the best sense of humor in the Senate. He loved the game of politics,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on X on Sunday morning. “He was constantly asking which races were up and down, and how he could help.”
Vance quoted Graham as saying, “I don’t care if you’re an isolationist or a religious fanatic, so long as you have an R next to your name, I want you to win.”
Graham’s influence can be seen in the war in Iran and Trump’s off-and-on support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, which the president had vowed to end in his second term. Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters called Graham “one of President Trump’s closest allies in the Senate.” When it counted, Graham held more sway with Trump than pundit Tucker Carlson or former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, to the consternation of many MAGA stalwarts.
Just this year, Trump’s endorsement helped Graham avoid a serious primary challenger and avoid a runoff, winning renomination with nearly 57% of the vote. Graham had been targeted by conservative activists since the Tea Party movement, but never drew a top-tier opponent.
“We’re marching through the world, we’re cleaning out the bad guys, we’re gonna have relationships with new people that will make us prosperous and safe,” Graham said on Fox News earlier this year. “I’ve never seen anything, anybody like it, this is Ronald Reagan plus.”
“Donald Trump is resetting the world in a way nobody could’ve dreamed of a year ago. He is the greatest commander in chief of all time, our military is the best of all time, Iran is going down, and Cuba is next,” he continued.
This kind of talk irritated Graham’s longtime allies, who frequently regarded Trump as a major departure from Reaganite conservatism. But Graham understood Trump and how to remain in the president’s good graces, unlike other figures who were arguably more aligned on policy.
“You could be the pope and criticize Trump. It doesn’t matter. He’ll go after the pope,” Graham said in a 2018 CNN interview. “You could be Putin and say nice things, and he’ll like you. It’s not the content of your character, it’s whether or not you show him respect and like him.”
These remarks seemed prescient after Trump clashed with Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff.
LINDSEY GRAHAM DEAD AT 71 AFTER ‘BRIEF AND SUDDEN ILLNESS’
Long before Trump, Graham was a quotable and media-savvy Capitol Hill player with friends across the political spectrum who was nevertheless maddening to those who rejected his expansive views on immigration and foreign policy.
“If you want to stump Lindsey, just ask him to name a country he wouldn’t bomb,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) wrote in his book How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will. “Invite him to dinner, and you don’t know if he’ll sit down for an intelligent conversation or get drunk and vomit in the fish tank. But that’s why I like him.”