From staunch critic to fierce ally: Graham's long, strange and consequential friendship with Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.

“Trump and I, we’ve 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’s been a consequential president," an emotional Graham said once authorities cleared the rioters and allowed senators to reclaim their chamber. "All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.”

It wasn't, of course.

Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died unexpectedly on Saturday night at age 71, realized that his party's 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.

“Can we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no,” Graham said in May 2021, just four months after the Jan. 6 attack. “I’ve determined we can’t grow without him.”

Trump, who called Graham a "true American Patriot” in a social media post Sunday, appeared shocked by the lawmaker's sudden passing.

“I just can’t believe it,” the president told NBC's “Meet the Press." “He was like a member of the family."

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.

“At the end of a particularly thrilling and rollicking meeting in the Oval Office, Lindsey Graham turned to the room and said: 'I’ve never had this much fun in my life,’” deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller wrote on X. He said such gatherings "were filled with camaraderie, kinship and uproarious laughter.”

Trump recalled that during his last conversation with Graham, he told his friend, “We’ll see you soon, come over anytime you want.”

The senator and Trump first clashed while competing for the 2016 presidential nomination.

Graham described Trump as “unfit for office,” and was angered when Trump denigrated the military service of Graham's close friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Trump suggested, “I like people that weren't captured” when talking about McCain's years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Trump got mad enough at Graham to release the senator's 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.

Graham eventually likened Trump's winning the nomination to “being shot in the head” 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.

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 “like a drum” on the course — even worse than in the presidential primary.

“Their true friendship could only be seen behind the curtain,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told ABC’s “This Week.” Scott said that relationship was forged as political adversaries but also strengthened by spending 100-plus hours golfing together.

During Trump's first term, Graham helped advance Trump's nominees to the Supreme Court, lent credibility to the White House's legislative agenda and even at times became part of the president's inner circle. He frequently said Trump was maturing in politics and growing on the job.

Graham's 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’s signature health care law. The effort had been co-sponsored by Graham.

In his floor speech after the Capitol attack, Graham said “he’d never been so humiliated and embarrassed for the country.” But the break with Trump ended quickly.

Weeks later, Trump invited Graham for golf and dinner at the president's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, reigniting their alliance. During Trump's 2024 campaign, Graham was a frequent Trump surrogate on television, promoting U.S. military strength that he said would advance “America First” policies.

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.

After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, Graham remained hawkish, staunchly defending the action and working to counter many in Trump's “Make America Great Again” base who thought “America First” meant avoiding such military conflicts.

“To 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,” Graham posted on social media June 19.

But Graham's 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.

“I want to start with a bunch of thank yous. I want to thank the big guy, God. Trump comes later,” Graham laughed. “Mr. President, you’re not far behind God, but we’re gonna start with him.”

FILE - President Donald Trump listens to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speak during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 6, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump walks to the Oval Office with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, play golf at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., as seen from the other side of the Potomac River in Darnestown, Md., July 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump, left, exits Air Force One with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Feb. 28, 2020, on arrival to North Charleston, S.C., where he will attend a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks as Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., listen, at a primary election night party at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, S.C., Feb. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

FILE - Former President Donald Trump listens as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks at a campaign event at the South Carolina Statehouse, Jan. 28, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Iran says it struck an oil tanker trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, while hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Tehran in the largest show of support for the government since the United States and Israel launched attacks in February.

Meanwhile, South Korea says it is considering expanding a naval operation in the Gulf of Aden to protect its ships and oil-shipping routes, but it will not send troops to intervene in the Iran war.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Friday. Full coverage is available here.

Iran said it struck the Togo-flagged oil tanker Trend over what it described as an “illegal attempt” to pass through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday night, according to the state broadcaster, which cited the Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the report.

The Guard's navy warned that vessels attempting to pass through the strait without authorization would face “destruction,” the broadcaster said. Tehran has asserted control over much of the waterway since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.

Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which alerts about attacks or military operations, said another tanker was struck Wednesday by an “unknown projectile” while transiting out of the strait, with the crew reported safe. No other details were available.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians filled the streets of Tehran in the biggest rally since the war began in February, pledging to take up arms as “Janfaday-e Iran,” or those “who sacrifice their lives for Iran.”

Iran’s government has sought to rally the people and stress national unity, even as the economy worsens under a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and new U.S. sanctions meant to increase Tehran’s economic pain.

Some participants trampled flags of the U.S. and Israel. Others chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

The president of the breakaway Somali republic of Somaliland is seeking greater recognition from the United States and offering the potential of military and commercial access to the territory’s Gulf of Aden coast in return.

After concluding various meetings with U.S. officials and lawmakers, President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi said Friday that establishing a U.S. diplomatic post in the capital of Hargeisa or the city of Berbera — a major port near the entrance to the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that has played a critical role in the U.S. war with Iran — is a priority for his government.

A number of U.S. lawmakers have called for the Trump administration to recognize Somaliland as an independent country, particularly after Israel did so earlier this year.

While the Trump administration still continues to recognize the territorial integrity of Somalia, which includes Somaliland.

Hundreds of people rallied in northern areas of Yemen in support of the Houthis and to protest Saudi Arabia’s accusation that the rebels targeted Islam’s holiest site, Mecca.

Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV showed protesters carrying pictures of the Kaaba, a landmark in Mecca, along with Yemeni, Iranian, Lebanese and Palestinian flags. A speaker reiterated the Houthis’ opposition to Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen's internationally recognized government.

The Saudis said they intercepted a Houthi drone targeting Mecca earlier this week. The Houthi leadership has denied responsibility.

The Iran-backed Houthis are fighting Saudi-backed Yemeni forces, and the conflict recently has fueled mass displacement of more than 100,000 people.

Container ships and oil tankers continued to transit the Bab el-Mandeb Strait after the Houthis said they are only targeting Saudi-linked vessels. But a dip in traffic has been reported over the last week after a lightning advance by Houthis on islands in the waterway.

About 26-35 vessels per day have transited this week, down from the 35-40 daily average of the prior eight weeks, according to Dimitris Ampatzidis, Maritime Risk & Compliance Manager at Kpler.

Many shipping companies abandoned the route after Houthi attacks on Israeli-linked vessels began in 2023, though vessels from Russia and China appear to have no trouble.

“Traffic remains severely impaired and increasingly selective,” said Mohamed Kotb with United Insurance Brokers in London.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said his government is considering expanding the operations of a naval unit deployed in the Gulf of Aden off the coasts of Yemen and Somalia to protect his country’s vessels and oil shipping routes.

But he stressed that South Korea would not take action that would draw it into the U.S.-Iran conflict, pushing back against recent pressure from the Trump administration. South Korea has deployed the anti-piracy Cheonghae Unit for years.

The growing threat from Houthis in Yemen to shipping in the region has alarmed countries and markets, even though the rebels have said they are only targeting the assets of neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter.

“There will be no troop deployment that involves or intervenes in the war,” Lee said.

In Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency said the Israeli army threw stun grenades where Lebanese army forces were stationed at the entrance to the town of Deir Mimas.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the Lebanese army had entered what Israel refers to as the “security zone," an area the Israeli army occupied during its latest war with Hezbollah, and established roadblocks "without prior coordination.”

A Lebanese security official said the soldiers wanted to escort villagers to their olive orchards and the area was not part of a security zone. He said Lebanese soldiers eventually withdrew. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

In June, Lebanon and Israel reached an agreement under which Israeli forces would gradually withdraw from occupied areas in southern Lebanon and allow the Lebanese army to take control, in exchange for disarmament of Hezbollah. There has been little progress in implementing the deal.

— By Abby Sewell

This piece will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

Palestinian civil defense crews carry a body from the rubble of a collapsed building that housed displaced Palestinians and was heavily damaged during the Israel-Hamas war, in Gaza City, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Armed personnel affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard take part in the state-organized "Janfada," or "Sacrifice for Iran," military exercise in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Protesters stage a rally against the possible deployment of South Korean troops to the Strait of Hormuz and a U.S. demand for the deployment, near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. The banners read ''Oppose troop deployment.'' (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)