12.7.2026
Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters in US politics has died suddenly at 71, after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Media reports said emergency personnel responded to a call for cardiac arrest at the South Carolina lawmaker’s Capitol Hill home on Saturday night.
Graham had just returned from a trip to Ukraine and was due to appear on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning, according to the network.
Graham had been a senator since 2003 and ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
Shortly after news of his death emerged, President Trump hailed Graham as “one of the greatest people and senators I have ever known” in a post on Truth Social.
Speaking with NBC later on Sunday, the president said he had spoken with Graham on Saturday night, hours before he died, and “other than being tired, he was fine.”
Trump told Meet the Press he believed Graham’s death was a “quick end, and maybe that’s not the worst way to go.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “deeply saddened” by the news, describing the senator as a “true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, also paid tribute. “Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend,” he said in a statement.
Graham’s abrupt death will send shockwaves through Washington and the Republican party. He had served in the Senate since 2003, representing South Carolina, and was running for re-election in November. Agency reports
Sen. Graham and President Trump sharing a moment.