American Senator Lindsey Graham died at the weekend at the age of 71.Image: keystone
Lindsey Graham was once a harsh critic of the US president. Then the senator realized that he could achieve more as a loyal ally. An obituary for the Republican.
July 12, 2026, 8:51 p.mJuly 12, 2026, 8:51 p.m
There is a clear break in Lindsey Graham’s career. This happened in 2016 when the senator from South Carolina ran for the Republican presidential nomination. He failed, and failed miserably. Even the quick-witted Graham had no chance against the newcomer Donald Trump. The Republican rank and file ignored his urgent warning that Trump’s nomination would result in the deserved “destruction” of the party.
The friendship with John McCain fell apart
Graham could have retired after this embarrassment. The Senate, of which he has been a member since 2003, is teeming with would-be presidents. Or he could have used his position as a people’s representative to put the new president in shackles – as his party colleague and mentor, Senator John McCain, did.
But Graham wanted to “stay relevant,” as he later said.
So he served as the new man in the White House, whom he had demonized just months before. Graham began to seek Trump’s closeness, played golf with him for hours and suddenly praised him lavishly. The president, initially amused by this Schmeichel attack, was happy about the new ally. And Lindsey Graham was back at the center of power, allowed to fly on the presidential plane and enjoying his regained status as the Republicans’ leading foreign policy expert.
Graham allowed his close friendship with John McCain, who died of cancer in 2018, to break down. The bond with Democrat Joe Biden, whom Graham once described as a father figure, also did not survive Graham’s transformation into a Trump friend.
The senator used to say that he was not an idealist, but a pragmatist.
Maybe that also had something to do with his childhood. His parents owned a café in a village in South Carolina. Even at a young age, Lindsey, who was born in 1955, had to work in the family business and keep the customers happy. In the 1970s, first his mother died of a tumor, then his father died of a heart attack. And Graham, who was studying law at the time and later volunteered to serve in the Air Force, became the guardian of his sister, who was nine years his junior. This is also why, he would later say, he never found time for a relationship; Graham remained a bachelor throughout his life.
“That was his best moment”
He always rejected the accusation, which was initially also heard from the Republican Party, that Graham was an opportunist. And in fact the reality was more complex. Despite his closeness to Trump, Graham remained a foreign policy hawk. He was a rabid supporter of the Iran War and until the end called for the overthrow of the regime in Tehran. Graham stood by his old ally Israel, even in recent years when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies were increasingly criticized in the USA.
The senator was also a loyal ally of Ukraine. Graham visited the Ukrainian capital on Friday and also met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy there. This was his tenth visit since the Russian war of aggression began in 2022.
Graham’s positions were not always met with approval in the White House. But Trump allowed gentle criticism of his foreign policy, probably also because Graham supported the president in other policy areas. His long term in office benefited him, thanks to which he was able to play a leading role in budget and judicial policy. Graham’s appearance during the hearing of the controversial Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated by Trump for a position on the Supreme Court in 2018, is unforgettable. “That was his best moment,” Trump said of the angry speech that Graham gave at the time.
Lindsey Graham died in Washington on Saturday evening after a “brief and sudden illness,” two days after his 71st birthday. The city rescue workers who had previously been alerted had diagnosed a cardiac arrest. Trump said after his ally’s death that Graham was “one of the greatest people and senators” he had ever known. (schweiztoday.ch)