Trump Recalls Friendship, Spats In Eulogy For Lindsey Graham

To President Donald Trump, who eulogized the late Sen. Lindsey Graham Tuesday afternoon, the longtime lawmaker from South Carolina was a good friend, a once maligned rival presidential candidate, a decorated statesman and a vital ally when it counted.

The president commemorated Graham, who died earlier this month due to a heart issue, in a speech at the National Cathedral in Washington, D. C., that sought to portray him as a titan of the Senate.

“For 71 years, Lindsey Graham was strong and steadfast as a brother, a senator, a warrior and a patriot,” Trump said at the funeral.

But their relationship, Trump admitted in a moment of levity during his eulogy, started off rocky.

After trading heated barbs during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Trump spoke Graham’s personal phone number into the microphone during a July 2015 debate. Shortly thereafter, the president said Tuesday, “his phone exploded.”

“I did something that I shouldn't have done,” joked Trump, who repeated the now-infamous ten digits.

But, the president continued, it spawned a friendship between the two and formed a channel for communication that meant “Lindsey did not stop calling me for the next 10 years.”

The president, whose political image as an anti-war isolationist has come into question amid an unpopular war with Iran, celebrated Graham’s hawkish stance toward foreign affairs, joking that the Air Force veteran “never saw a war that he didn’t like.”

“But he wanted it for the good of our country,” the president said.

The funeral service was attended by a collection of world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who counted the senator among the nation's staunchest allies even amid declining support from Americans.

But perhaps Graham’s greatest stand, Trump said, was his fiery defense of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who in 2018 was facing accusations of sexual assault during his nomination proceedings, which Kavanaugh — who was in attendance at Tuesday's service — vehemently denied at the time.

Graham, who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2021 and voted in favor of the majority of Supreme Court nominees placed before him, regardless of whether they were appointed by Republican or Democratic presidents, memorably offered the defense of Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings, calling the proceedings “the most unethical sham since I've been in politics.”

“It was a truly monumental moment in Senate history,” Trump remarked Tuesday. “I believe it was Lindsey’s perhaps finest hour.”

Trump also took the opportunity to celebrate the late senator’s relationship with his sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed to serve out the remainder of his term. Trump has endorsed Darline Graham's bid for a full six-year term in the upcoming midterm elections.

“I have no doubt that he is looking down today, beaming with pride at his sister,” Trump said Tuesday.