A rare, warm tribute from Donald Trumppublished at 20:26 BST
20:26 BST
Gary O’Donoghue
Chief North America correspondent, reporting from Washington DC
President Trump rarely resists going off script, but today he stuck to the spirit of the occasion, at least pretty much.
In a speech laden with superlatives and the warmest of tributes, Donald Trump spoke of the former senator from South Carolina as a “legend”, an “American original” and (in the bit that was unscripted) “a tough cookie”.
The warmth was clearly genuine, and the mens’ past differences were frankly acknowledged.
Trump, in rare self-deprecating mode, told the story of how he had read out Lindsey Graham’s phone number on television during the 2016 election.
“Something I shouldn’t have done,” he said.
The bit he didn’t recount was how the South Carolina senator had responded – publishing a political ad where he put that phone into a blender!
This speech was apposite and full of grace. A send-off fitting for a genuine American statesman.
Image source, Getty Images