Lindsey Graham, Trump ally and Senate hawk, dies at 71

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the Republican Party's most prominent hawks and a close ally of President Donald Trump, died at 71.

Graham's office issued a statement Sunday saying he "passed away on the evening of July 11 after a brief and sudden illness." According to multiple US media reports, emergency responders received a call around 8:30 p.m. Saturday reporting a patient with chest pain at Graham's home. Paramedics performed CPR on the scene before transporting him to a hospital.

Graham was born in 1955 and entered politics when he won a House seat in 1994. He won election to the Senate in 2002 and represented South Carolina for more than two decades.

Graham was one of the Republican Party's most outspoken hawks on major national security issues. From his days in the House, he argued that the United States should isolate Iran and constrain its nuclear and missile programs, and continued to advocate sanctions and military responses against Tehran after joining the Senate. He publicly supported the Trump administration's military campaign against Iran in February and repeatedly called for sustained airstrikes, closely echoing Israel's position. US media gave him the nickname "crazy uncle" after he was reported to call White House staff regularly to press the case for continuing the strikes.

Graham also maintained a hard line toward Russia, China and North Korea, and was a strong supporter of Ukraine following Russia's invasion. He visited Kyiv 10 times after the war began in 2022, and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky there just before his death. At that meeting, he said a bipartisan agreement had been reached with the White House on additional sanctions to help end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Graham consistently called for a tough response to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats. When tensions on the Korean Peninsula escalated amid North Korea's nuclear provocations in 2017, he publicly raised the possibility of the Trump administration using military options against the North, drawing controversy. He said at the time that if a conflict broke out, Trump had indicated "the war will be fought on the Korean Peninsula."

Following North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile test that same year, Graham said families of USFK personnel should be evacuated from South Korea. Ahead of the 2018 North Korea-US summit, he also warned that Kim Jong-un could face "the end of his regime" if he failed to honor his denuclearization commitments.

On the Coupang Inc customer data breach, Graham sided with those arguing that the South Korean government and National Assembly's moves to penalize the company amounted to discrimination against a US firm, and said Seoul needed to resolve the Coupang matter to preserve US-South Korea cooperation against China.

Graham's death leaves Trump without one of his closest allies and most reliable supporters in Congress. Although the two were rivals during the 2016 Republican primary election, Graham became a fierce Trump loyalist after the administration took office in 2017. He had also been a strong advocate for Trump's so-called Save America Act, the voter ID legislation Trump has pushed aggressively in recent months.

Trump campaigned for Graham last month, saying, "He's been with me for a long time. After the primary was over, we became best friends. He's helped me more than anyone else in the Senate."

After Graham's death, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "Senator Lindsey Graham was one of the finest people and Senators I have ever known. He was always working and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed."

Israel, which had counted on Graham as a staunch backer during the Iran conflict, also mourned his passing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying: "Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot, and I have lost a dear friend."

Graham had been planning to seek a fifth six-year Senate term in the November midterm elections. South Carolina is a reliably Republican state, and his reelection had been widely expected. With his death, the Republican Party's Senate seat count falls to 52. The chamber had stood at 53 Republicans against 47 Democrats and independents combined, and that margin has now narrowed.

However, under South Carolina state law, Gov. Henry McMaster may appoint a successor, which would allow Republicans to retain the seat.