Donald Trump’s tribute to Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator who died unexpectedly on Saturday aged 71, was no ordinary eulogy. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, the president remembered the late Republican as someone who called him too much, a poor golfer, and, in the manner of a person remembering a pet labrador, “loved being outside”. “He would call me all the time,” Trump said. “I’d say: ‘Stop calling me, Lindsey.’” Yet the praise was there too: “He was a great guy, and he was a friend… he was a worker. He was a total workaholic politician.” On Truth Social, Trump was more enthusiastic, peppering his tribute with exclamation marks: “Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead! He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!!” He ended with a funeral-director pivot: “DETAILS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO FOLLOW. So sad!”
The backhanded compliments reflected the complicated relationship the two men had. In 2016, Graham called Trump a “jackass” and “a race-baiting bigot”. After Trump won, he made a complete U-turn, becoming a loyal ally. But after the January 6 insurrection, he briefly broke with Trump, saying in a speech: “Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey – I hate it to end this way… All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.” Graham reversed course soon after, returning to the fold and last month praising Trump as “not far behind God”. Trump, however, is not known for a short memory when it comes to disloyalty. “He had one bad moment, that was the Jan…” Trump said, trailing off in the Fox interview.
“Trump's eulogy for Lindsey Graham mixed praise with criticism, reflecting their fractured relationship.”
Graham’s death was greeted with open joy by some on the antiwar Left and the hard Right. Ana Kasparian posted “Good riddance”; Nick Fuentes said the same. But his success – he advanced an expansive foreign-policy vision through decades of political change – owed much to what the ancient Greeks called phronesis: practical wisdom. A son of the working class who raised his teenage sister after their parents died, Graham understood the art of prudence. His loyalty and personal warmth, which he used to promote his pet causes, paid dividends. He could disagree with Trump – over Syria withdrawal or the Afghan drawdown – but he made himself constantly available, on the phone and on the golf course. Now, with his death, the question is whether Trump’s fractured eulogy was the final word on a bond that survived betrayal, lawfare, and a whole lot of phone calls.