Lindsey Graham, war-hawk who went from 'never Trump' to forever Trump, dies unexpectedly

The TOI correspondent from Washington: For weeks, official Washington has been bracing for legislative afterlife of Senate Republican titan Mitch McConnell, 82, whose deteriorating health had invited political obituaries.

Instead, it was Senator Lindsey Graham,16 years younger and still actively crisscrossing the globe on diplomatic missions till recently, who died suddenly on Sunday at 71, stunning the Republican Party and reshaping the political landscape heading into the November mid-term elections. Graham's death ends one of the most consequential and controversial careers in modern American conservatism. A senator from South Carolina since 2003 and before that a congressman and state legislator, he was one of America’s most recognisable foreign-policy hawks.

The joke in Washington was there wasn’t a war Graham did not love, as he advocated military interventions from Iraq and Afghanistan to more recent calls for action against Iran and unwavering support for Israel and Ukraine.

His office said he died of "a brief and sudden illness."India, too, recently found itself in Graham’s crosshairs as he unloaded on New Delhi for economic ties with Russia during its war on Ukraine, whose supporter he was.

It was Graham who triggered the Trump tariffs on India by introducing the "Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025" which, among other things, proposed a 500% tariff on nations buying Russian energy. "India, China, Brazil and others who prop up Putin’s war machine by buying cheap Russian oil: How do you feel right now that your purchases have resulted in innocent civilians, including children, being killed?" Graham wrote on X in one of his provocative posts, hours after a bombing in Kiev killed 23.To admirers, he was a steadfast believer in American power and global leadership. To critics, he was the embodiment of Washington's interventionist establishment – a serial cheerleader for wars and sanctions whose instinct was almost invariably to urge tougher action abroad. Yet Graham's political biography may be remembered less for his hawkishness than for his remarkable transformation on Trump.During the 2016 Republican primaries, he was among Trump's fiercest critics, calling the MAGA boss a "race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot" and warning that nominating him would destroy the Republican Party.

“You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell,” Graham said, once calling him a “jackass.”After Trump entered the White House and especially following the death of Senator John McCain, Graham evolved into one of the President’s greatest sycophants, repeatedly championing Trump's policies, defending him during impeachment proceedings and becoming an ubiquitous presence at Trump's side.

“Mr. President, you’re not far behind God,” he joked in a speech celebrating his primary victory last month.Graham's death immediately creates practical and political complications for Republicans considering McConnell is also out of commission. Under South Carolina law, Governor Henry McMaster is expected to appoint an interim replacement who will serve until a special election is held. Graham occupied a safe Republican seat, but the unexpected vacancy will force the party into an expensive and divisive scramble, and Democrats, though still underdogs in a state that has not elected one in decades, suddenly have an opening to compete in a race that had looked largely settled.Nationally, Graham's death temporarily reduces the Republicans’ 53-47 margin in an already narrowly divided Senate, complicating leadership calculations and adding another unpredictable variable to the November elections. Trump, who once called him a “stiff,” an “idiot” and a “lightweight” posted this on Truth Social: 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… So sad!