US Senator Lindsey Graham passes away at 71

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham passed away on Saturday evening after a brief and sudden illness, the communications director for his office said in a post on X early on Sunday.

"On the evening of Saturday, July 11, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham passed away from a brief and sudden illness," his office said in the statement. "Senator Graham's family appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period," the statement added. No further details about the illness were disclosed.

US President Donald Trump paid tribute to Senator Lindsey Graham following his death, calling him “one of the greatest people and senators I have ever known” in a post on Truth Social. “Lindsey Graham was always working, and was a true American patriot,” Trump wrote, praising the longtime South Carolina Republican and close ally for his dedication to public service.


sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also paid tribute to late US Senator Lindsey Graham, calling him one of Israel’s strongest supporters. In a statement, Netanyahu said, “Israel has lost one of its greatest friends, and I have lost a beloved friend.”

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Graham, 71, was a prominent Republican senator from South Carolina. Earlier in his career, he was a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump before becoming one of his most loyal allies on Capitol Hill.

Career timeline

Graham was born on July 9, 1955, in Central, South Carolina. He earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina, and went on to serve as a defense attorney and chief prosecutor in Europe with the U.S. Air Force's Judge Advocate General's Corps from 1982 to 1988. He later continued in the Air Force Reserve while serving in Congress and was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service in 2014, holding the rank of colonel.

He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995 before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, representing South Carolina's third congressional district. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002 and was re-elected in 2008, 2014 and 2020. He was serving his fifth term and was running for re-election in 2026 at the time of his death.

Committee roles and policy focus

Graham recently served as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. He also served as a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. He chaired the Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2021.

A defense hawk, his office's website said he had consistently pushed for outcomes in the War on Terror aimed at protecting long-term U.S. national security interests. He was a strong advocate of an interventionist foreign policy, including military action against Iran, and was a vocal supporter of Israel and Ukraine.

Ties with Trump

Graham was an outspoken critic of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential candidacy and had also been critical of the Tea Party movement, according to Wikipedia. He ran for the Republican presidential nomination in that election cycle but dropped out before the primaries began.

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His relationship with Trump shifted after the two met in 2017, and Graham went on to become one of the president's most vocal defenders and allies on Capitol Hill.

Graham was a close friend and political ally of the late Senator John McCain, with whom he frequently travelled abroad in pursuit of an assertive U.S. foreign policy.

According to NBC News, Graham had just returned from Kyiv, Ukraine, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, days before his death.