{"id":4820,"date":"2026-07-12T18:05:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4820"},"modified":"2026-07-12T18:05:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:05:39","slug":"from-critic-to-steady-ally-lindsey-grahams-changing-relationship-with-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4820","title":{"rendered":"From critic to steady ally: Lindsey Graham\u2019s changing relationship with Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 After the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, Sen. Lindsey Graham said he had finally had enough of the man who was championed by the mob that stormed the pillar of American democracy: President Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4818\">MLB Draft: Tracking locals selected on Day 2<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cTrump and I, we\u2019ve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he\u2019s been a consequential president,\u201d an emotional Graham said once authorities cleared the rioters and allowed senators to reclaim their chamber. \u201dAll I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It wasn\u2019t, of course.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died unexpectedly on Saturday night at age 71, realized that his party\u2019s future was inextricably tied to Trump and quickly reverted back to being a staunch defender. The shift made what had once seemed like a final rupture into just another twist in the topsy-turvy relationship between the powerful senator and the president who came to dominate their party.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Get Starting Point<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><label>Enter Email<\/label><\/p>\n<div><button>Sign Up<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>\u201cCan we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no,\u201d Graham said in May 2021, just four months after the Jan. 6 attack. \u201cI\u2019ve determined we can\u2019t grow without him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump, who called Graham a \u201ctrue American Patriot\u201d in a social media post Sunday, appeared shocked by the lawmaker\u2019s sudden passing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI just can\u2019t believe it,\u201d the president told NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d \u201cHe was like a member of the family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Graham often advised Trump on foreign affairs, particularly on matters pertaining to Israel, Ukraine and Iran. He was a frequent visitor at the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAt the end of a particularly thrilling and rollicking meeting in the Oval Office, Lindsey Graham turned to the room and said: \u2018I\u2019ve never had this much fun in my life,\u2019\u201d deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller wrote on X. He said such gatherings \u201cwere filled with camaraderie, kinship and uproarious laughter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump recalled that during his last conversation with Graham, he told his friend, \u201cWe\u2019ll see you soon, come over anytime you want.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2>Graham once said Trump\u2019s candidacy was like \u2018being shot in the head\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>The senator and Trump first clashed while competing for the 2016 presidential nomination.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Graham described Trump as \u201cunfit for office,\u201d and was angered when Trump denigrated the military service of Graham\u2019s close friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Trump suggested, \u201cI like people that weren\u2019t captured\u201d when talking about McCain\u2019s years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump got mad enough at Graham to release the senator\u2019s personal cellphone number. That prompted a viral video in which the senator dramatically destroyed a series of flip phones. He smashed one with a meat cleaver and another with a golf club, then used lighter fluid, a blender and toaster oven to pulverize others before tossing one off the roof.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Graham eventually likened Trump\u2019s winning the nomination to \u201cbeing shot in the head\u201d and said he refused to vote for Trump that November. But the pair later bonded over golf and what Graham described as a mutual and irreverent sense of humor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4817\">Tracking the Red Sox\u2019 selections in the 2026 MLB Draft<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump and Graham began so frequently hitting the links together that the senator started seeing it as something of a career builder, leaning heavily into the kind of over-the-top flattery Trump relishes. In 2017, Graham joked that Trump had beaten him \u201clike a drum\u201d on the course \u2014 even worse than in the presidential primary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cTheir true friendship could only be seen behind the curtain,\u201d Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d Scott said that relationship was forged as political adversaries but also strengthened by spending 100-plus hours golfing together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>During Trump\u2019s first term, Graham helped advance Trump\u2019s nominees to the Supreme Court, lent credibility to the White House\u2019s legislative agenda and even at times became part of the president\u2019s inner circle. He frequently said Trump was maturing in politics and growing on the job.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Graham\u2019s political divergence with McCain, who died in 2018, was never more clear than in 2017, when McCain voted against a Trump-backed plan to overturn Democratic President Barack Obama\u2019s signature health care law. The effort had been co-sponsored by Graham.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2>A split that was short-lived, an alliance reignited <\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>In his floor speech after the Capitol attack, Graham said \u201che\u2019d never been so humiliated and embarrassed for the country.\u201d But the break with Trump ended quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Weeks later, Trump invited Graham for golf and dinner at the president\u2019s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, reigniting their alliance. During Trump\u2019s 2024 campaign, Graham was a frequent Trump surrogate on television, promoting U.S. military strength that he said would advance \u201cAmerica First\u201d policies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Graham never shed his more traditional Republican foreign policy views, including outspoken support for Ukraine during the Russian invasion. He was also a leading voice pushing the White House to more fully embrace Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and take a harder line against Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, Graham remained hawkish, staunchly defending the action and working to counter many in Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d base who thought \u201cAmerica First\u201d meant avoiding such military conflicts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cTo those who say Iran is stronger now than before, that is an insult to the American military and it is delusional thinking because the Iranian economy is in shambles,\u201d Graham posted on social media June 19.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But Graham\u2019s admiration for Trump went far beyond Iran. When Graham clinched the South Carolina Republican primary last month, he suggested the president was just short of a deity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI want to start with a bunch of thank yous. I want to thank the big guy, God. Trump comes later,\u201d Graham laughed. \u201cMr. President, you\u2019re not far behind God, but we\u2019re gonna start with him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4815\">Game 94: Red Sox at Mets lineups and preview<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Graham was a powerful Senator. President Trump came to dominate the Republican Party. Their relationship was marked by huge tidal changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From critic to steady ally: Lindsey Graham\u2019s changing relationship with Trump - Boston Relocation Insider<\/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:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4820\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From critic to steady ally: Lindsey Graham\u2019s changing relationship with Trump - Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Graham was a powerful Senator. 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