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US Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Republican who went from a staunch critic of Donald Trump to one of his staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill after Trump became president, has died at the age of 71.
The South Carolina lawmaker died after a “short and sudden illness,” his office reported to X early Sunday. NBC News said emergency responders responded to a cardiac arrest call at his Capitol Hill home Saturday night.
Shortly after his death was announced, Trump called Graham “one of the greatest senators I know” and a hard-working patriot.
During the 2016 campaign, Graham was among several Republicans who lost the presidential nomination to Trump. He wrote on social media: “If we nominate Trump, we will be destroyed … and we will deserve it.”
Later, after becoming a staunch supporter, Graham publicly disagreed with Trump’s early 2025 decision to pardon about 1,500 supporters of the president who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, saying it could lead to more violence.
A defense hawk, Graham “always pushes for results in the War on Terror that protect our long-term security interests,” his website says. He was a prominent supporter of Israel and Ukraine and opposed to Iran.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz sent to X that he was deeply saddened by the death of Graham, who “stood with Israel in the most difficult times.”
On Friday, Graham said China could play an important role in pressuring Russia to hold peace talks, helping to end its war in Ukraine. Graham, a frequent visitor to Ukraine, met with the President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. They discussed Ukraine’s air defense needs and the Russian sanctions bill, Zelenskyy said.
Graham said strengthening military power in Ukraine and aligning sanctions with diplomatic pressure could force Moscow to negotiate.
“The road to ending this war, the road to peace, goes through Beijing more than (it goes through) Washington, Kyiv, or Moscow,” Graham told reporters in Kyiv’s Mykhailivska Square. “China has a lot of influence. I would like them to use their influence for the benefit of the world.”
“I can’t believe (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is still here, but it wouldn’t take much to get him there.”
Graham recently served as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and was a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Graham, a former Air Force attorney and member of the South Carolina Air National Guard, was elected to the US Senate in 2002. Before that, he was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1994 for South Carolina’s 3rd congressional district, according to his website.
He was single and lived in Seneca, South Carolina.
