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Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, one of US President Donald Trump’s closest political allies and a leading voice on American foreign policy, has died at the age of 71 following a “brief and sudden illness,” his office announced on Sunday.
According to US media reports, emergency responders were called to Graham’s Washington residence on Saturday night following reports of a cardiac arrest. He had returned only a day earlier from Kyiv, where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. There had been no publicly known health concerns before the trip.
President Trump paid tribute to the South Carolina senator, describing him as a “true American patriot” who would be “greatly missed.”
Speaking to NBC News, Trump said he had spoken with Graham just hours before his death.
“He sounded great, just a little tired,” Trump said. “He was a tough cookie. If he believed he was right, he fought hard. But he was a good person.”
First elected to the US Senate in 2002, Graham became one of Washington’s most influential Republican lawmakers, particularly on foreign policy and national security. He was a strong advocate of robust US military engagement overseas and consistently backed increased defence spending and close strategic ties with allies.
His political relationship with Trump evolved dramatically over the years. During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Graham was one of Trump’s fiercest critics, describing him as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” and warning that nominating him would damage the Republican Party.
Following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, Graham declared on the Senate floor that he had reached the end of his political alliance with Trump, saying, “Enough is enough.”
However, he later reconciled with the president, voted against convicting Trump during his second impeachment trial, and became one of his strongest supporters during the 2024 presidential campaign. Graham cited Trump’s record on border security, the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and his appointments of conservative federal judges as reasons for his support.
In a 2023 interview with the BBC, Graham acknowledged Trump’s controversial style but defended his presidency, saying, “There is a dark side to Donald Trump… and he was a very good president.”
International leaders also paid tribute to the veteran senator. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Graham as “one of Israel’s greatest friends,” saying he understood that “the security of Israel and America are inseparable.”
Throughout his Senate career, Graham consistently supported military intervention in Iraq, opposed the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, and remained a staunch supporter of Israel. In one of his final television interviews last month, he warned that the United States would “obliterate” Iran if it threatened freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Graham’s death marks the end of a political career spanning more than two decades, during which he remained one of the Republican Party’s most prominent and influential figures on defence and foreign affairs. Source: BBC News
