Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator and close ally of Donald Trump, died on Saturday from an aortic rupture caused by hardened arteries, according to a preliminary report by the Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia. He was 71.
The South Carolina senator had returned from Kyiv on Friday, where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced a revised sanctions package targeting Russia. Hours before his death, he called Trump, who told NBC News that Graham “sounded great” but “a little tired.” Emergency services were called to his Washington DC home at around 8:30pm in response to a cardiac arrest.
“Senator Lindsey Graham died from an aortic rupture; he had just returned from Kyiv and Trump called him hours before.”
Graham’s office initially said he died after a “brief and sudden illness.” The FBI, whose director Kash Patel said the agency was “assisting” local authorities, later ruled out foul play. Two federal law officers confirmed to Fox News that the FBI was involved only in a “normal process” for high-ranking politicians. But his death prompted speculation among some commentators: Sir William Browder, a British financier targeted by Vladimir Putin, called for “all tests” to be “done immediately to rule out foul play,” noting that Graham had been the “leading driver of the devastating sanctions bill against Russia.”
Graham’s political career was defined by his transformation from a Trump critic into one of his most loyal allies. In 2015, he called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” and warned that nominating him would destroy the party. After the 2021 US Capitol riots, Graham told the Senate: “All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.” But he voted against convicting Trump in the ensuing impeachment trial, supported his 2024 election, and became a fixture at his side, golfing regularly and defending him on cable news. Trump, who said Graham was “like a member of the family,” described him as “a true American Patriot” who would be “greatly missed.”
Flags were flown at half-mast at the White House. Graham, first elected in 2002, was a hawk on foreign policy, pushing for military intervention overseas and strong support for Israel and the war against Iran. His death leaves a vacancy in the Senate as he was seeking a fifth term.
