US President Donald Trump’s close aide, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, passed away at the age of 71. According to a statement from his office, “a brief and sudden illness” caused his death on Saturday night. One of Washington’s most powerful voices on foreign affairs, the South Carolina Democrat was elected to the Senate in 2002.
He had just returned from a Friday meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, in Kyiv. Prior to his travel, there were no known health issues. Trump described Graham as a “true American Patriot” in a social media statement commemorating the senator’s passing.
Graham was a fervent advocate of arming Kyiv and imposing sanctions on Moscow, whereas Trump and many of his friends have been ambivalent in their support for Ukraine and have adopted a more accommodative stance toward Russia.
Graham was working on a version of the Russia sanctions measure that he said would provide “tools to President Trump to end this war” during his most recent visit to the nation.
The news of the senator’s passing “deeply saddened” Zelensky.
He said that Graham had been “with our people when it was most needed” and had made ten trips to the nation since Russia’s full-scale invasion in a post on his official X account.
At first, Graham and the US president had disagreements. In 2015, he called Trump “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” in an interview with CNN. During the 2016 campaign, he said on social media, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed… and we will deserve it.” In a statement on the Senate floor following the 2021 US Capitol riots, Graham stated: “Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey.” This is how I hate it to end. “Count me out is all I have to say. “Enough is enough.”
However, he went on to become one of his most ardent supporters. He backed Trump in the 2024 election and voted against Trump’s conviction in the 2021 impeachment trial.
“There is a dark side to Donald Trump… and he was a very good president,” he stated to the in 2023. However, I am staying with him since I witnessed his actions. He mentioned Trump’s actions on the US southern border, the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s strong military leader, and the selection of hardline judges.
According to his website, Graham “consistently pushed for outcomes in the War on Terror that protect our long-term national security interests” and was well-known for his interventionist foreign policy views.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, he supported military action against Iraq and opposed the US soldiers’ departure from Afghanistan in 2021, calling it a “sad and dangerous event for US national security”. “Jihadists all over the world are celebrating,” he said. “America will be seen as weak.”
Graham was an ardent Israel supporter. “Lindsey understood that the security of Israel and America are inseparable,” said Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu in a Sunday homage to Graham. “One of its greatest friends” was lost by Israel, he continued.
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