{"id":4536,"date":"2026-07-12T22:22:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=4536"},"modified":"2026-07-12T22:22:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:22:40","slug":"lindsey-graham-who-died-at-71-made-a-costly-bet-on-donald-trump-and-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=4536","title":{"rendered":"Lindsey Graham, who died at 71, made a costly bet on Donald Trump and won"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"zephr-anchor\">\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) died suddenly over the weekend, his office announced on Sunday, and the political world is processing his legacy earlier than it ever expected to.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">More than perhaps any senator \u2014 even the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/07\/us\/politics\/mitch-mcconnell-hospital-thune-barrasso.html\">currently ailing Mitch McConnell<\/a> \u2014 Graham embodied the transition from an older era of the Republican Party and Washington politics to the Trump era we live in now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Graham was famously a vocal critic of Donald Trump, whom he ran against in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, but rapidly became a top ally after the election, to the horror of many of his longtime friends inside and outside the GOP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But Graham\u2019s career arc also showed why so many Republicans of so many different stripes were tempted to embrace Trump. The senator ultimately succeeded in steering an inexperienced, ideologically malleable, and easily flattered president toward many of his own lifelong priorities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Take just one aspect of Graham\u2019s considerable legacy: Foreign policy, where he was one of the most prominent hawks in American politics for decades.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">At the time of Graham\u2019s death, the US was engaged in a major military conflict with Iran that he had championed for decades and exercised <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/11\/us\/politics\/how-marco-rubio-runs-venezuela.html\">de facto control of Venezuela\u2019s government<\/a> after arresting its leader, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, an operation Graham had also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/2019\/5\/26\/18640654\/lindsey-graham-trump-invade-venezuela-reagan-grenada\">pushed for years earlier<\/a>. The day before he died, Graham <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kyivpost.com\/post\/80086\">toured Kyiv<\/a> with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/494737\/russian-ukraine-nuclear-putin\">making military gains<\/a> against Russia with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/08\/world\/europe\/a-license-to-make-patriot-defense-systems-may-be-a-big-boost-for-ukraine.html\">US support<\/a> after Graham helped him <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/articles\/trump-ukraine-and-the-nato-summit-a-love-story\">weather Trump\u2019s early hostility<\/a> \u2014 partly by advising the leader to <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/international\/5185950-witkoff-says-zelensky-apologized-in-letter-to-trump\/\">humble himself before the president<\/a>. Right up to the weekend, the senator was working to sell the president on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/07\/10\/congress\/russia-sanctions-trump-graham-blumenthal-00993504\">a bipartisan sanctions bill<\/a> against Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">If Graham made a Faustian bargain to sacrifice his pre-Trump reputation in order to advance his pre-Trump policy goals, then the terms were often honored.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But history is rarely so neat: What he gave up was also real, and other forces stirred up by Trump could one day erase those gains.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p><h2 class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Graham\u2019s career before Trump<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Graham rose to prominence from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/msnbc\/lindsey-graham-joins-crowded-2016-presidential-field-msna608156\">small-town obscurity in Central, South Carolina<\/a>, where he raised his younger sister after their parents died and ran their family restaurant. He served as a lawyer in the US Air Force and quickly climbed the ladder from the state legislature to the House, where he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/2020\/1\/23\/21079011\/lindsey-graham-impeachment-trump-clinton\">helped lead Bill Clinton\u2019s impeachment<\/a>, before winning an open Senate seat in 2002 after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2003\/06\/27\/us\/strom-thurmond-foe-of-integration-dies-at-100.html\">Strom Thurmond died<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But by the time of Trump\u2019s rise in 2016, he was something of a fading relic within his party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Graham was a close ally of the late Sen. John McCain, who jokingly called him \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/defense\/policy-strategy\/233909-mccain-calls-lindsey-graham-his-illegitimate-son\/\">my illegitimate son<\/a>,\u201d and the two shared many habits and ideals that were being challenged by the then-ascendant Tea Party movement. They were both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/msnbc\/the-rand-paul-debate-society-msna523721\">national security conservatives<\/a>, they were known for their <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/ABC_Univision\/Politics\/mccain-graham-obama-committed-immigration-reform\/story?id=18601967\">bipartisan dealmaking<\/a> at a time of increased polarization, they promoted respect for Senate institutions at a time <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/blogs\/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results\/2016\/03\/10-times-graham-criticized-cruz-220939\">insurgents like Ted Cruz<\/a> demanded procedural radicalism, and they were ubiquitous in the traditional Beltway press in the era of Fox News and social media (at the time of his death, Graham was scheduled for his <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kwelkernbc\/status\/2076252524353339564\">64th <em>Meet the Press<\/em> appearance<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Graham survived what many saw as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2014\/04\/lindsey-graham-south-carolina-tea-party-105928\">serious primary threat in 2014<\/a> over his repeated negotiations with Democrats. In President Barack Obama\u2019s first term, he entertained becoming the decisive vote on climate and immigration bills, but ultimately disappointed the president when he withdrew from talks (he seemed like a movie spy \u201cwho double-crosses everyone to save his own skin,\u201d Obama later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/obama-book-biden-trump-palin\/2020\/11\/13\/36c4828a-25b8-11eb-8599-406466ad1b8e_story.html\">wrote in his memoir<\/a>). In Obama\u2019s second term, Graham and McCain were part of the bipartisan \u201cGang of Eight,\u201d a robust attempt at an immigration reform package that would have provided a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, expanded legal immigration, and added more border security. It passed the Senate, but never came up for a vote in the House after a right-wing populist backlash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Nevertheless, Graham ran for president in the 2016 cycle, where he <a href=\"https:\/\/chicago.suntimes.com\/city-hall\/2015\/7\/30\/18603458\/gop-candidate-graham-pushes-immigration-reform-in-chicago\">confronted conservative critics of his immigration plan<\/a> head-on. He warned Republicans that they were repellent to Latino voters and were entering a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/wbna52229978\">demographic death spiral<\/a>\u201d that could only be fixed by becoming a party more welcoming to immigrants. And he said that more extreme voices in the party were leading them away from what the median voter was willing to tolerate on any number of issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Naturally, he was critical of Trump, who seemed to represent everything he fought against, both in domestic politics and in foreign policy. It didn\u2019t help that Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2015\/07\/trump-attacks-mccain-i-like-people-who-werent-captured-120317\">derided McCain\u2019s heroism<\/a> as a POW in Vietnam, telling a conservative audience that \u201cI like people who weren\u2019t captured.\u201d Graham called Trump a \u201cjackass\u201d shortly after; Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/graham-calls-trump-a-jackass-trump-reads-out-his-phone-number-during-rally\">gave out Graham\u2019s personal cellphone number at a rally<\/a> in response.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Like many in the party, Graham seemed to think Trump was a passing storm and that the best course of action was to shield the GOP\u2019s reputation as much as possible from long-term damage after his inevitable loss.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Instead, Trump won \u2014 leaving Graham to once again figure out his place in a party that was moving further and further from his personal vision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p><h2 class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>What Graham got out of Trump<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Trump was not immediately embraced by his entire party after his victory. Especially in the Senate, he faced significant skepticism, including from Republicans who \u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2016\/05\/06\/lindsey-graham-wont-vote-for-trump-or-clinton\/\"> like Graham <\/a>\u2014 had publicly announced they would not vote for him in the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But while McCain and others continued to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/2018\/8\/25\/17782664\/john-mccain-legacy-obamacare-repeal-thumbs-down\">a thorn in Trump\u2019s side<\/a>, and others offered only beleaguered cooperation, Graham quickly endeared himself to the president as an enthusiastic defender in the press and in Senate hearings. \u201cI am like the happiest dude in America right now,\u201d Graham said on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2017\/04\/lindsey-graham-praises-trump-237361\"><em>Fox &amp; Friends<\/em><\/a>, the president\u2019s favorite program, less than three months after his inauguration. \u201cWe have got a president and a national security team that I\u2019ve been dreaming of for eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Graham\u2019s shift generated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/25\/magazine\/lindsey-graham-what-happened-trump.html\">numerous theories<\/a> as to his motives. Obviously, many saw political survival as a factor: There was virtually no chance Graham would have won another primary had he gone \u201cNever Trump.\u201d Others took a more psychological tack: Steve Schmidt, a former McCain adviser, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/politics-features\/lindsey-graham-senate-trump-928948\/\">called him a \u201cpilot fish\u201d<\/a> who instinctively attached himself to a larger predator and lived off their reflected glory \u2014 first McCain, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2018\/8\/25\/17778136\/senator-john-mccain-death-died-passed-away\">died in 2018<\/a>, then Trump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But Graham, who loved nothing more than narrating his personal journey in real time, offered plenty of detail as to his thinking. In his telling, he had one clear motive: to be in the room where it happens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Trump, he told the New York Times Magazine\u2019s Mark Leibovich <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/25\/magazine\/lindsey-graham-what-happened-trump.html\">in a 2019 profile<\/a>, could \u201cchange his mind in a New York minute\u201d on major decisions \u2014 especially foreign policy, where the stakes were high, the president\u2019s views were not well-developed, and the range of outcomes was very wide. That meant that insinuating himself into his inner circle gave him unique influence in a way that wasn\u2019t true for other presidents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">\u201cI went from, \u2018O.K., he\u2019s president\u2019 to \u2018How can I get to be in his orbit?\u2019 to \u2018How can I have a say in what\u2019s going to happen today, tomorrow and next week?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">After Trump\u2019s 2020 loss and the January 6 Capitol riot, when some conservatives who had been playing a similar game finally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2021\/5\/5\/22419504\/liz-cheney-trump-big-lie\">turned on the president,<\/a> Graham made a similarly pragmatic argument that Republicans who wanted to win elections and advance their issues needed to stick with Trump or become irrelevant. \u201cIf you tried to run him out of the party, he\u2019d take half the party with him,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2021\/05\/11\/would-gop-be-cut-half-if-trump-walked-away\/\">told Bloomberg News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Importantly, Graham wasn\u2019t the only one playing this game. At any given moment, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/world\/2017\/2\/8\/14549240\/donald-trump-elliott-abrams-rand-paul-tom-cotton\">faced competition<\/a> from his ideological nemeses \u2014 like Sen. Rand Paul, a non-interventionist, and, later on, media figures like Tucker Carlson \u2014 who also recognized the opportunity to lobby Trump. On one side, libertarians and isolationists seized on Trump\u2019s criticism of the Iraq War and sympathies toward Vladimir Putin and argued for withdrawal from the world and from institutions like NATO. On the other side, hawks like Graham would seize on his instinctive saber-rattling toward Iran and his desire to demonstrate dominance to argue for a more active military role. In each case, Trump\u2019s allies praised the president\u2019s judgement and argued that their framework was the true MAGA foreign policy that fit his desires.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Trump handed alternating victories to different sides in his first term, while avoiding larger military conflicts. But, especially in Trump\u2019s second term, Graham and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.semafor.com\/article\/05\/03\/2026\/how-the-fox-news-hawks-got-back-in-trumps-good-graces\">other pre-Trump hawks<\/a> began to win out with a vision that appealed to Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/2026\/04\/donald-trump-legacy-history\/686817\/\">ambitions to leave a grandiose legacy<\/a> at home and abroad, even as they struggled to keep the same instincts from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/476024\/greenland-us-europe-nato-davos-trump-deal\">blowing up NATO<\/a>. Many of the relevant figures involved, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2026\/01\/19\/marco-rubio-profile\">Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a>, were also once harsh Trump critics who made peace with the president and were rewarded with greater responsibilities in his administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">And while Graham is best known for his advocacy in world affairs, a similar arc occurred in the Senate on domestic priorities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">As a member and later chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he played a critical role in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2018\/09\/27\/lindsey-graham-kavanaugh-hearing-849479\">confirming<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lgraham.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm\/2020\/10\/senate-confirms-amy-coney-barrett-to-the-supreme-court\">Supreme Court justices<\/a> and federal judges \u2014 who were often, like Graham, more closely associated with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/494657\/supreme-court-maga-backlash-amy-coney-barrett\">pre-Trump movement conservatism<\/a> than the MAGA right.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">As budget chair, he helped craft the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/418314\/big-beautiful-bill-trump-republicans-congress\">massive package of tax cuts and health-care spending reductions in 2025<\/a> that expanded on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2017\/12\/20\/16790040\/gop-tax-bill-winners\">similarly giant tax cuts<\/a> of Trump\u2019s first term. And once again, many of the policies \u2014 tax cuts for individuals and businesses, spending cuts to social programs \u2014 were consistent with the old pre-Trump, and even pre-Obama, era he came from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p><h2 class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Graham\u2019s legacy is uncertain<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Graham died with a budget, a judiciary, and an entire world order that were all shaped in part by his influence over Trump. But he also leaves behind a deeply unsettled party as Trump enters his lame-duck period.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">On foreign policy, the Iran war failed to achieve its goals, and many hawks have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/06\/15\/politics\/trump-republicans-iran\">disappointed<\/a> in Trump\u2019s efforts (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/494968\/iran-us-strait-hormuz\">currently imperiled<\/a>) to negotiate a ceasefire and potential peace agreement with the regime they hoped to permanently remove. The war\u2019s unpopularity and its close association with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu have also helped fuel an ongoing bipartisan backlash to America\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/486053\/israel-democratic-party-criticism-arms-sales\">close relationship with Israel<\/a> \u2014 another cause Graham championed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2016\/07\/opioid-of-the-masses\/489911\/\">former Trump critic<\/a> who amassed power after an about-face, has close ties with many of the MAGA leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/podcasts\/484709\/iran-war-tucker-carlson-donald-trump-america-first\">most critical<\/a> of Graham\u2019s perspective. It\u2019s possible he, or someone like him, inherits the party instead of more old-school conservatives <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/488189\/marco-rubio-jd-vance-maga-trump-presidential-conservative-2028-succession\">like Rubio<\/a>, who share more of Graham\u2019s worldview. That extends to domestic policy, where Graham\u2019s vision for a more demographically inclusive party, which he never fully abandoned, has run up against a resurgence of open white nationalism empowered in part by Trump\u2019s destruction of political taboos and establishment guardrails. And then there\u2019s the threat to American democracy \u2014 free speech, fair elections, impartial justice \u2014 that Graham believed was manageable under Trump while so many of his former colleagues feared otherwise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">It would be ironic if, in finally achieving the apotheosis of his personal vision for Trump, Graham discredited it for a generation of conservatives and empowered successors who loathed him and everything he stood for. But that\u2019s a problem for the next generation of leaders, who will have to make their own decisions about what red line they\u2019re willing to cross in the never-ending pursuit of power that is politics. Graham made his own choice, and now \u201cleading Trump ally\u201d will be splashed across obituary headlines to summarize his 71 years on Earth for newsreaders today and for historians yet not born.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) died suddenly over the weekend, his office announced on Sunday, and the political world is processing his legacy earlier than it ever expected to. More than perhaps any senator \u2014 even the currently ailing Mitch McConnell \u2014 Graham embodied the transition from an older era of the Republican Party and Washington&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/platform.vox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/gettyimages-2229959931.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.73813947446%2C100%2C78.52372105108&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}