Trump says he spoke with Lindsey Graham hours before senator died

Lindsey Graham’s sudden death on Saturday evening left South Carolina’s Senate seat vacant and abruptly changed the Sunday political lineup in Washington. Graham, 71, had been scheduled to appear on NBC’s Meet the Press, but the broadcast became a tribute after his office confirmed that he died after a brief and sudden illness.

President Donald Trump said on the program that he spoke with Graham on Saturday night, hours before the senator died. Trump said Graham seemed fine except for being tired, a detail that added a personal note to a death that reverberated immediately through the Senate and among Republican leaders who had worked with him for decades.

Graham was elected to the Senate in 2002 and had become one of Trump’s closest political allies. His office confirmed his death early Sunday, and Kristen Welker said his planned appearance on Meet the Press would have been his 64th on the broadcast.

The final days of Graham’s public schedule underscored how active he remained on foreign policy. He had just returned from Ukraine and met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on July 10, before heading back to Washington for a Sunday television appearance that never happened. Trump used Truth Social and his interview to describe Graham as a “true American Patriot” and “one of the greatest people and Senators” he had known.

Other Republicans moved quickly to respond. Sen. Tim Scott called Graham a “true statesman” and a friend. Meet the Press later devoted airtime to tributes and to Graham’s rise in Congress and his long foreign-policy profile, as Washington absorbed the loss of a senator who had remained a central figure in his party until the end.