President Donald Trump paid tribute to Lindsey Graham—but not without managing to praise himself in the process.
The 71-year-old South Carolina senator died on Saturday night. His office said a preliminary examination conducted by the medical examiner found he died from an “Aortic Dissection due to Arteriosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease.”
Trump, 80, initially posted on Truth Social at 3:21 a.m Sunday after hearing the shock news. He wrote, “Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead! He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!!”
In another post, he ordered “all American Flags throughout the United States lowered to Half Mast until Saturday evening at 6 P.M,” in honor of his “dear friend” and “truly great man” Graham.
Trump shared the flag post three times, on the last adding a video of a flag at the White House being lowered.
At 9:10 p.m. Sunday, Trump shared an image of Graham with the caption “So sad!!! President DJT.” The White House shared the post, adding, “Senator Lindsey Graham will be greatly missed!”
While Trump did not include a photo of himself, he chose one in which Graham is holding a large printed version of a fake Wikipedia profile page from January that shows Trump as the “Acting President of Venezuela.”
Graham is smiling in the undated image, and wearing a black cap that reads “Make Iran Great Again.”
Trump first posted the digitally altered image on his Truth Social page on Jan. 11. The previous week, Trump had launched Operation Absolute Resolve, in which U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and transported them to New York to face narco-terrorism charges.
Trump has a history of making aides print hard copies of documents that take his fancy.
His 34-year-old adoring aide, Natalie Harp, has earned the nickname “human printer” for her role following Trump around, fulfilling his every request, including fetching merchandise, performing Google searches, printing stories from right-wing websites, and suggesting possible Truth Social posts.
Trump phoned into Jake Tapper’s State of the Union on CNN on Sunday to speak about Graham and shared details of their final phone call.
“It’s devastating, I thought he was fine. He called me last night, he just got back from Ukraine, he had a great trip, he was telling me about the trip... he was full of vim and vigor.”
Trump added, “He was tired... because it’s a long trip but other than that he was fine. He called me, I guess, just moments before... what a terrible loss.”
Despite Sunday’s glowing tributes, Trump and Graham had a complicated history over the last decade. Both men ran for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Graham called Trump a “jackass,” a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot,” and warned he would destroy the Republican Party.
After Trump won the White House in 2016, the pair were convinced into a “make-up” lunch in March 2017, according to New York magazine, and they became fast friends by 2018 and regular partners on Trump’s golf courses.
Trump admitted that Graham used to be a “great enemy” but was now a “great friend.” “I really like Lindsey. Can you believe it? I never thought I’d say that, but I do.”
