President Donald Trump ordered all flags to be lowered to half-staff to honor former Sen. Lindsey Graham after his sudden death on Saturday.
Graham was noted as one of Trump’s closest allies in the Senate, and the president spent much of Sunday commemorating him on news shows and on social media. He made a national effort to commemorate Graham as well, ordering flags to be flown at half-staff all week.
“In honor of the remarkable life and achievements of Senator Lindsey Graham, a dear friend of mine, and a truly great man, who achieved so much for our Country, and his beloved Home State of South Carolina, I am ordering all American Flags throughout the United States lowered to Half Mast until Saturday evening at 6 P.M. GOD BLESS YOU LINDSEY!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
He first commented on Graham’s death just over an hour after it was announced, praising him as “one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known.”
The president had spoken to Graham shortly before his death by phone, during which the senator said he was a “little tired,” but otherwise seemed fine.
TRUMP SAYS ‘I HAVE SOMEBODY’ TO REPLACE LINDSEY GRAHAM AFTER SENATOR’S DEATH
“And so it had to be something like that, that would just be a quick end. And maybe that’s not the worst way to go,” Trump said.
Graham’s death severs the last major institutional link in the Senate connecting the old Reaganite interventionist branch of the Republican Party with Trump’s MAGA movement, which is typically skeptical of interventionism. It also triggered a scramble for who would replace him in the Senate, both in the short term and who would take the Republican nomination after him.
