My mother used to tell me, “If you can’t say something nice about somebody, then you shouldn’t say anything at all.” Sorry Mom.
Lindsey Graham has died at the age of 71. The exact cause of death is unclear at this time.
Two decades ago, Lindsey Graham was a serious politician who aligned himself with John McCain, an Arizona Republican. Lindsey Graham and John McCain were huge advocates of US military power. There is not a foreign problem that Lindsey Graham thought we could not solve with U.S. military intervention. I’m sorry. Once he attacked Donald Trump and then decided that Donald Trump was his ally, I lost all the respect that I had for Lindsey Graham.
Lindsey Olin Graham (July 9, 1955 – July 11, 2026) was an influential American politician, attorney, and military veteran who dedicated over three decades to public and military service. A member of the Republican Party, he represented South Carolina in both houses of Congress and became one of the nation’s most prominent and recognizable voices on foreign policy and national defense.
Early Life & Education
Graham was born and raised in the small town of Central, South Carolina, where his parents ran a local restaurant, pool hall, and liquor store called the Sanitary Cafe. He was the first member of his family to attend college, enrolling at the University of South Carolina and joining the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).
When Graham was 20 years old, tragedy struck his family: his mother passed away from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and his father died of a heart attack just 15 months later. Left to care for his 13-year-old sister, Graham became her legal guardian. The military permitted him to complete his education close to home at the University of South Carolina, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1977 and his Juris Doctor from the university’s School of Law in 1981.
Military Service
Graham compiled a distinguished 33-year military career spanning all three components of the U.S. Air Force:
- Active Duty (1982–1988): Served as a military lawyer in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps, including a stint as a defense attorney and chief prosecutor for the Air Force in Europe.
- Air National Guard (1989–1995): Joined the South Carolina Air National Guard and was called to active duty during the first Gulf War, serving stateside as a Staff Judge Advocate.
- Air Force Reserve (1995–2015): Continued his service while holding congressional office, pulling short-term reserve duties in Iraq and Afghanistan during congressional breaks. He retired in June 2015 at the rank of Colonel.
Political Career
Rise to Congress (1992–2002)
Graham entered politics in 1992, winning a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives. Just two years later, in 1994, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first Republican to represent South Carolina’s 3rd congressional district since 1877. During his tenure in the House, he gained national prominence as one of the managers during the 1998 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.
U.S. Senate (2003–2026)
In 2002, Graham ran for the U.S. Senate to succeed the long-serving Strom Thurmond. He won the election and was subsequently re-elected in 2008, 2014, and 2020.
In the Senate, Graham built a reputation as a conservative reform advocate and a hawk on foreign policy. He strongly favored robust military funding, supported military intervention abroad, and remained a staunch proponent of U.S. aid to Ukraine and a hardline stance against Iran. While generally voting with his party leadership, he occasionally demonstrated a willingness to forge bipartisan compromises on judicial nominations, immigration, and defense, famously teaming up with Democrat Patrick Leahy to successfully pass legislation giving the chief of the National Guard Bureau a permanent seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Once Lindsey Graham entered the Senate, he always seemed to need someone to lead him around. He needed somebody to guide him. When he first got into the Senate, that person was John McCain. He was almost like John McCain’s lapdog. Once John McCain died, he latched on to Donald Trump.
Presidential Campaign & Relationship with Donald Trump
Graham briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, during which he was a fierce and vocal critic of Donald Trump. Trump famously gave out Graham’s personal cellphone number during the Republican primary. Lindsey Graham did nothing to fight back. He didn’t lash out at Donald Trump. He basically rolled over and said, “Scratch my belly.”
However, following Trump’s election, Graham’s political positioning shifted dramatically. He evolved into one of Trump’s closest allies and advisors on foreign affairs, playfully describing himself in a 2026 interview as the president’s “north star.” Personally, I think that Donald Trump had something on Lindsey Graham. I can’t prove it, but his about-face seemed to happen almost instantaneously. During Trump’s second term, Graham played a pivotal role in passing major tax and spending cuts via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.
In my mind, Lindsey Graham was a conservative Republican. He had core beliefs around the military, but everything else was malleable. He was a reliable Trump supporter, and for some reason, he was on Meet the Press over sixty times. Although Lindsey Graham previously supported conservative justices, his support for Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett is hard to stomach. Neither should be on the Supreme Court. Neither represent the country. Sigh. Lindsey Graham is a disappointment at best.
