{"id":906,"date":"2026-07-12T21:07:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906"},"modified":"2026-07-12T21:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:07:22","slug":"the-remaking-of-lindsey-graham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906","title":{"rendered":"The Remaking of Lindsey Graham"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

On July 13, 2015, my Washington Post<\/em> colleague Michael Gerson and I interviewed Senator Lindsey Graham about his long-shot and, as it turned out, not terribly long-lasting Presidential campaign. The day before, on CNN, the South Carolina Republican had unloaded on Donald Trump, who had glided down the golden escalator at Trump Tower the previous month to launch his own, seemingly improbable, Presidential bid. Other Republican contenders, perhaps wary of Trump\u2019s growing appeal among voters, had been restrained in their criticism of the real-estate developer. Graham was unsparing. Trump, he said, was a \u201cwrecking ball for the future of the Republican Party\u201d and a \u201cdemagogue.\u201d Trump\u2019s depiction of undocumented immigrants as rapists and murderers, Graham said, was a \u201cdefining moment for the Republican Party.\u201d He added, \u201cIf we do not reject this way of thinking clearly, without any ambiguity, we\u2019ll have lost our way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more The Stellar New Restaurant That\u2019s Put a Museum on the Map<\/a><\/p>\n

When I asked Graham why he thought Trump\u2019s message was catching on, he situated Trump within the same populist mode as the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who had entered the Democratic Presidential race. \u201cThere\u2019s a market, always, for this kind of stuff,\u201d Graham told me. Still, he predicted of Trump, \u201cAt the end of the day, his growth potential is not great. He\u2019s probably hit where he\u2019s going to go.\u201d It was nonetheless important to counter Trump\u2019s anti-immigrant rhetoric, Graham said, not least because the Party was alienating such a significant chunk of the electorate. \u201cI will not be part of this,\u201d he told me. \u201cI will not be part of this as a Presidential candidate, as a United States senator. I know better, and I have an obligation to speak up.\u201d The disdain was mutual. Trump dismissed Graham as a \u201clightweight\u201d and an \u201cidiot.\u201d He read Graham\u2019s private cellphone number at a rally in South Carolina, much to the delight of the crowd.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Trump\u2019s growth potential was, of course, greater than Graham had anticipated. And Graham, who died suddenly Saturday night, just a few days after his seventy-first birthday, became, over the past decade, very much part of this\u2014an omnipresent adviser who was, with rare exceptions, firmly supportive of Trump\u2019s extreme agenda. But during the 2016 campaign, Graham had resisted: like his mentor, the Arizona senator John McCain, Graham did not attend the Republican Convention that year, and he later revealed that he wrote in the name of the independent candidate Evan McMullin on the general-election ballot.<\/p>\n

Once Trump was in office, though, Graham fell in line\u2014and into Trump\u2019s favor. If Graham felt an obligation to speak up, he muted it in the service of maintaining his remarkable access to the President\u2014their hours together on the golf course, their White House lunches and frequent phone calls. \u201cI\u2019ve tried to be helpful where I could because I think he needs all the help he can get,\u201d Graham told the Associated Press, in 2018. \u201cYou can be a better critic when people understand that you\u2019re trying to help them be successful.\u201d In an interview with the Times<\/em>\u2019 Mark Leibovich, Graham was even more candid about his motivation: \u201cto try to be relevant.\u201d Graham elaborated, \u201cI have never been called this much by a president in my life. It\u2019s weird, and it\u2019s flattering, and it creates some opportunity. It also creates some pressure.\u201d By this point, he had been in public office for nearly three decades, first in state politics and then in Washington, where he served four terms in the House before his election to the Senate in 2002.<\/p>\n

Read more The Human Cost of DOGE\u2019s War on U.S.A.I.D.<\/a><\/p>\n

One way to understand Graham\u2019s transformation\u2014on subjects including immigration reform, climate change, and fiscal responsibility\u2014is through the lens of biography. Graham grew up in a back room of the Sanitary Caf\u00e9, a liquor store, pool hall, and bar that his parents operated in Central, South Carolina. But before Graham graduated from college, both of his parents had died; he had been particularly close to his father. \u201cI came along late in my dad\u2019s life, and he made the most of our time together,\u201d Graham wrote in his campaign autobiography. \u201cWhatever he did, he did it with me.\u201d It is not a stretch to see the arc of Graham\u2019s adulthood as a shift from one influential male figure, McCain (who called Graham his \u201c illegitimate son\u201d), to another, Trump. That shift came despite the uncomfortable reality that Trump had derided McCain\u2019s war service (\u201cI like people who weren\u2019t captured,\u201d he said in 2015) and clashed with him as President, most dramatically when McCain offered a literal thumbs-down to the repeal of Obamacare in 2017. McCain\u2019s battle with brain cancer, and his eventual death in 2018, coincided with Graham\u2019s growing alliance with Trump. \u201cJohn\u2019s death really left a hole in his heart,\u201d the Maine Republican senator Susan Collins said of Graham. \u201cIt seemed like Lindsey had lost a father.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

But there is a larger point, and perhaps a larger lesson, in Graham\u2019s evolving relationship with Trump: about the stories that politicians tell others, and even themselves; about the concessions they make in order to cling to power and influence; and about the particular way in which Trump has managed to bend the Party, and its leading figures, to his will. In the age of Trump, what were once mavericks are now vassals\u2014unless they have left the Party or been effectively cast out. Graham would no doubt argue that this is a reasonable price to pay for retaining the ability to convince a President. After all, Trump\u2019s support for Ukraine at the recently concluded NATO<\/em> summit was, in part, a reflection of Graham\u2019s passionate advocacy; Graham had returned from Ukraine just before his death. But consider the cost in tongue-biting and principle-swallowing this entails. After rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Graham seemed to break with the President. \u201cTrump and I, we\u2019ve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way,\u201d he said on the Senate floor that day. \u201cAll I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.\u201d Just a few months later, in May, he said, \u201cCan we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no. I\u2019ve determined we can\u2019t grow without him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham, choking back tears as he spoke during a tribute to McCain after his death, said that among the lessons McCain had imparted was the imperative of flexibility. \u201cHe taught me that principle and compromise are not mutually exclusive,\u201d Graham said. That may be, but the question lingers: In Donald Trump\u2019s Washington, must so much principle be compromised that none remains?\u00a0\u2666<\/p>\n

Read more The Summer I Surrendered to Wilson Phillips<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruth Marcus on the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who has died, at the age of seventy-one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-lede"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Remaking of Lindsey Graham - City Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Remaking of Lindsey Graham - City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ruth Marcus on the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who has died, at the age of seventy-one.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-12T21:07:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\"},\"headline\":\"The Remaking of Lindsey Graham\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-12T21:07:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906\"},\"wordCount\":1152,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/5ebaa5b5480cbef6a41676de7c30dca9.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"The Lede\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906\",\"name\":\"The Remaking of Lindsey Graham - City Relocation News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/5ebaa5b5480cbef6a41676de7c30dca9.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-12T21:07:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/5ebaa5b5480cbef6a41676de7c30dca9.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/5ebaa5b5480cbef6a41676de7c30dca9.webp\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=906#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Remaking of Lindsey Graham\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"City Relocation News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Remaking of Lindsey Graham - City Relocation News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Remaking of Lindsey Graham - City Relocation News","og_description":"Ruth Marcus on the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who has died, at the age of seventy-one.","og_url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906","og_site_name":"City Relocation News","article_published_time":"2026-07-12T21:07:22+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4"},"headline":"The Remaking of Lindsey Graham","datePublished":"2026-07-12T21:07:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906"},"wordCount":1152,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5ebaa5b5480cbef6a41676de7c30dca9.webp","articleSection":["The Lede"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906","url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906","name":"The Remaking of Lindsey Graham - City Relocation News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5ebaa5b5480cbef6a41676de7c30dca9.webp","datePublished":"2026-07-12T21:07:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5ebaa5b5480cbef6a41676de7c30dca9.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5ebaa5b5480cbef6a41676de7c30dca9.webp","width":1280,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=906#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Remaking of Lindsey Graham"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/","name":"City Relocation News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com"],"url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}