Trump shares tribute to late Senator Lindsey Graham

Trump the president shared a New York Post opinion piece honoring the South Carolina Republican, who died July 11 at age 71 after 23 years in the Senate.

First Published: July 13, 2026, 2:46 PM ET

WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald Trump has shared a tribute to Lindsey Graham, the late South Carolina senator and Air Force colonel who died days earlier.

Here is the full post on truthsocial: “Lindsey Graham: The senator, soldier and statesman who never backed down: https://nypost.com/2026/07/12/opinion/lindsey-graham-the-senator-soldier-and-statesman-who-never-backed-down/”

The post links to a New York Post opinion piece written by Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, published July 12, 2026 at 9:22 PM ET. Graham served 23 years as South Carolina’s senator, eight years as a congressman and 33 years in the Air Force, according to nypost.com. Waltz recalled training alongside Graham in Afghanistan and described a lawmaker willing to trade the Senate floor for a military uniform.

Graham died July 11, 2026, in Washington at the age of 71, according to wikipedia.org. He represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 2003 until his death, and he previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, according to britannica.com. He retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 2015 and received the Bronze Star Medal in 2014 for legal work tied to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Graham chaired the Senate Budget Committee from 2025 until his death and led the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2021, according to wikipedia.org. He won the Republican nomination for a fifth term in June 2026 but died before the general election. His sister, Darline Graham Nordone, was appointed by Governor Henry McMaster to serve out the remainder of his fourth term, according to cbsnews.com.

The loss reshapes the balance of the Senate and removes one of the chamber’s most vocal hawks on foreign policy. Graham advocated an interventionist role for the United States and was a prominent supporter of Israel, Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, according to wikipedia.org. His absence deprives Trump of a loyal congressional ally who championed the president’s judicial nominees.

Graham was once an outspoken critic of Trump during the 2016 campaign, when he sought the Republican presidential nomination himself before withdrawing, according to britannica.com. He later became one of the president’s closest allies in Congress. “President Trump has lost a trusted friend,” Waltz wrote in the piece Trump shared.

For most Americans, the death changes little in daily life, though South Carolina voters will choose a new senator once the interim appointment expires. The seat carries weight in a closely divided chamber where a single vote can decide legislation and confirmations.

Has a sitting senator died in office before? This has happened before. Graham’s predecessor, Strom Thurmond, held the same South Carolina seat for decades, and John McCain, one of Graham’s closest allies, died in office in 2018 after a battle with brain cancer, according to pbs.org.

The next decision rests with South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, who has named Nordone to the seat and must set the timing of any special election under state law. A date for the general contest to fill the term has not been separately announced beyond the scheduled election.

Graham’s death is not the first time South Carolina has lost a towering political figure mid-tenure. Strom Thurmond, who preceded Graham in the seat, served in the Senate from 1954 until 2003 and set a record for longevity in the chamber, according to britannica.com. Thurmond died in 2003, months after leaving office at age 100, and the seat he vacated passed directly to Graham, who held it for the next 23 years.