US Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, has died suddenly, and President Donald Trump revealed that he had spoken with him by telephone only a few hours before his death. In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump described the late senator as someone who was "like a member of the family", NBC News reports.
According to Trump, Graham called him earlier that evening to discuss the SAVE America Act, a proposed electoral reform bill which currently lacks sufficient support in the Senate. "He actually said he was tired, but he wanted the Save America Act to pass. I told him: We’ll get it done, Lindsey. See you soon," Trump recounted, adding that they had planned to meet as early as Sunday.
In an interview with CNN, Trump said Graham had also mentioned his recent trip to Ukraine, from which he had just returned. The day before his death, the senator had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Within the Republican Party, he was a prominent advocate of a strong foreign policy, support for Ukraine, and a hardline stance towards Iran.
The relationship between the two politicians was not always close. During the 2016 campaign, Graham was one of Trump’s loudest critics and briefly ran for the Republican nomination himself, describing Trump’s campaign at the time as founded on xenophobia, racial intolerance, and religious intolerance. A new rift occurred after the attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021, but Graham voted several weeks later to acquit Trump in the impeachment proceedings and supported him in the 2024 elections.
In recent years, he had become one of the president’s closest allies and a regular golfing partner. Trump had also backed his re-election campaign, which was due in the autumn, and described the senator’s death as a "quick end".
