Former President Donald Trump traced his long-running friendship with the late Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham back to a single definitive moment: defeating him in his own home state during the 2016 primary campaign.
Trump called into NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, just hours after news broke that Graham had died from what CBS News reported as a “brief and sudden illness.” Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu filled the broadcast segment originally scheduled for Graham, who had been booked to appear on the program that morning.
The relationship between Trump and Graham did not start smoothly. The two were fierce opponents early in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. During a July 2015 campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump mocked Graham’s intelligence, stating he didn’t seem “like a very bright guy,” and read Graham’s personal cellphone number aloud to the crowd after the senator publicly called him a “jackass.”
On Sunday, Trump reflected on how that dynamic shifted after the voting began.
“I got to know Lindsey during the campaign. I didn’t really know him then,” Trump said during the broadcast. “He was tough, but he said, ‘I’ll see you in South Carolina’ … But when it came to South Carolina, I won South Carolina by a lot, and I sort of ran the table on everybody, and it was good. … He respected it, and we sort of got a little bit friendly, and just the friendship grew.”
Trump praised Graham’s work ethic and political instincts, describing him as an “amazing advocate” and a reliable metric for the political climate in Washington.
“He came into the White House a lot because I liked him. Can’t do that with everybody … [H]e was a great … temperature gauge of the Senate,” Trump said. “[H]onestly, he was a great politician. People don’t realize what a good politician he was. He could go in and get something approved. He would just get people on his side.”
According to The Hill, Graham had called Trump on Saturday evening to discuss the SAVE America Act immediately after returning from an international trip to Ukraine. Trump noted the significance of that final conversation, stating that Graham was focused on the legislation despite the grueling travel.
“Think of it. He’s traveling for many, many hours. That’s a long flight … And he, you know, calls me about the Save America Act. He thought we were going to get it passed,” Trump said, adding, “This is a big blow to the Save America Act.”
Trump recalled that his final words to the senator during that phone call were, “We’ll see you soon. Come over anytime you want.”
Later in the program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined the broadcast to offer his own tribute. Netanyahu focused heavily on Graham’s persistent efforts to secure larger U.S. military aid packages for Israel, sometimes even pushing for higher funding levels than the Israeli government itself requested.
Netanyahu recalled legislative negotiations where Graham insisted on increasing funding for ballistic missile defense.
“He would argue with me. He would say, ‘No, you know, for [Israel’s] ballistic missile defense … whatever is the number, it has to be bigger.’ And I said, ‘Lindsey, we can do with a smaller number.’ He said, ‘No, you can’t,’” Netanyahu said. “And then he would go to the Senate, and actually, can you imagine this? He would outbid the Prime Minister of Israel.”
Netanyahu stated that Graham’s motivations went beyond standard political calculations or regional demographics.
“[Graham] said, ‘I’m not getting a single vote in South Carolina for that because you know there are very few Jews in South Carolina, and the people, yes, they support Israel … but I support Israel, and I think you need more. And I’m going to fight for this,’” Netanyahu said. “This is who Lindsey Graham was.”
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