To call Lindsey Graham’s death sudden would be a spectacular understatement. Yes, the Republican senator for South Carolina was 71, but unlike several of his Senate colleagues, he had no known health issues and kept up an active schedule.
Graham, a vital Trump ally and one of the few remaining Republican foreign policy hawks, died after “brief and sudden” illness on Saturday evening, his office said in a statement early on Sunday.
The timing of his death just days after a supportive visit to Ukraine and shortly before the announcement of new US sanctions on Russia and permissions for Kyiv to construct US missiles, has already set off a huge wave of online speculation – though at this stage no mainstream reporting suggests it was anything other than a man in his 70s having a heart attack.
Graham, a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its conflict against Russia who was in regular contact with Zelensky, was due to appear on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning. Instead, reports emerged of his unexpected death, reportedly of a cardiac arrest at his home.
For Donald Trump, the death of a personal friend and outspoken supporter of the President’s interventions in Iran and other countries is a blow at a time when he is restarting an unpopular war.
Trump posted a tribute to Truth Social almost immediately after news broke of Graham’s death, writing at at 3.21am US East Coast time: “Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead! He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!! DETAILS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO FOLLOW. So sad!”
South Carolina’s Republican governor will now appoint someone to fill Graham’s seat until January 2027, undoubtedly a Trump loyalist. The senator was also standing for re-election in November’s midterms, and will be replaced as a candidate in a primary that will certainly be won by a Maga Republican of one flavour or another, who will almost certainly win the election.
But while the overall maths of US Senate politics is not much changed by Graham’s passing, it is his absence as a personal confidant and public champion for Trump – rather than the absence of his vote – that could prove most consequential.
Graham was the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, perhaps the most important committee in the Senate, with control over the government’s purse strings. He was also one of the last remaining neoconservatives – Republicans who believed in the Bush-era mission of exporting the American brand of democracy around the world, by force if necessary – in the Senate.
The South Carolina senator supported Trump’s interventions in countries like Iran as well as regularly playing golf with him (Photo: AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)Maga had defined itself against neoconservatism, prioritising “America First” instead. But Trump recently appears to have suddenly discovered neoconservatism, launching a war against Iran with unclear objectives that appeared to include regime change – which Trump now alternatively claims he achieved, or never wanted.
It has divided Trump’s support base, triggered economic woe for Americans and the world and seriously damaged his approval ratings. With Graham gone, Trump has lost one of the few prominent sincere cheerleaders of his Iran war even within his own party. More importantly, he risks a new Budget Committee chair who is less well-disposed towards his foreign adventures.
Trump had also in recent days announced friendlier policies towards Ukraine, including allowing it to build Patriot missiles. With one of the few Ukraine hawks to have Trump’s ear now suddenly absent, Zelensky’s good fortune may change once again, given the President’s famously fickle nature.
Trump and Graham had not always been on such warm terms. Graham briefly contested the 2016 Republican presidential primary, suggesting during his campaign Trump was “the most flawed nominee in the history of the Republican party”, “a race-baiting bigot” and a “jackass”. In May 2016, long after he had dropped out of the contest, Graham warned on Twitter: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it.”
Once Trump won power, though, Graham found himself able to look past the long list of flaws he’d once seen, and became not just an ally to Trump but something of a friend, too – the two men were regular golfing partners.
Graham had something of a wobble after Trump incited an insurrection against the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, as part of his bid to overturn the legitimate election result – saying “count me out” and “enough is enough” – but once again overcame petty concerns over decency and legitimacy once it became clear Trump would win again. For Graham, friendship, or at least proximity to power, could surmount almost any obstacle.
Trump was already in a politically difficult situation. Republicans mostly fervently wanted the war on Iran to be over, especially with the midterms looming so closely – they wanted the ceasefire deal to hold, and for gas prices to come down.
Instead, in the last week, Trump declared the ceasefire “over” while Hegseth has vowed that “now they pay” – as if a bombing run that killed most of their senior government officials was just a warmup. Trump is now set to lead his party into the midterms while still waging a controversial foreign war, with no stated goal or end in sight, and which Congress never voted to authorise.
He will now need to do so without one of his few friends and genuine supporters. Donald Trump’s already difficult war just got a little tougher still.
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