{"id":370554,"date":"2026-07-12T21:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/370554\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T21:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:56:13","slug":"trump-says-he-spoke-with-sen-graham-hours-before-his-death-nbc-5-dallas-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/370554\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he spoke with Sen. Graham hours before his death \u2013 NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump<\/a> told NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d Sunday that he spoke with\u00a0Sen. Lindsey Graham<\/a>, R-S.C., on Saturday night, hours before the senator died.<\/p>\n

Trump said that \u201cother than being tired, he was fine,\u201d adding that he believed Graham\u2019s death was a \u201cquick end, and maybe that\u2019s not the worst way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The late senator was a close ally of Trump\u2019s, and the president described him to \u201cMeet the Press\u201d as someone who was \u201clike a member of the family to me.\u201d The two spoke regularly on the phone and golfed together. Graham had just returned from a trip to Ukraine before his sudden death.<\/p>\n

The president said that Graham called him in the early evening to discuss the SAVE America Act<\/a>, a bill that would reshape how elections operate but does not have enough support to pass the Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe actually said he was tired, but he wanted to pass the SAVE America Act, and I said, \u2018Well, we\u2019re going to get it done, Lindsey. We\u2019re going to get it done. I\u2019ll see you, like, soon,\u2019\u201d Trump told \u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Kristen Welker, adding that the two believed they might meet on Sunday.<\/p>\n

In a separate interview on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union,\u201d Trump said that Graham was also \u201ctelling me about the trip\u201d in their phone call, noting that the senator \u201chad a great trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump remembered the late senator as someone with a \u201cunique ability,\u201d saying that Graham could work out issues with Democrats and that he \u201cloved being a politician.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had a problem, a real problem, I wouldn\u2019t often ask. But if I had a problem with a Democrat, he could work it out,\u201d Trump said. \u201cHe was a great, he was a great politician, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Trump said, the senator could be a \u201ctough cookie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he wanted to get something, if he thought he was right, and he had people against him, he could be very tough, actually,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut he was a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham had been scheduled to appear on \u201cMeet the Press\u201d on Sunday following his trip to Ukraine. The senator was a prominent foreign policy hawk within the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

Graham had pushed for Trump to support Ukraine in the war against Russia, and he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Friday, just a day before he died.<\/p>\n

The senator also had urged Trump to take a\u00a0hardline approach<\/a>\u00a0against Iran, pushing for military intervention while arguing that Iranian leadership was an unreliable negotiating partner.<\/p>\n

Though Graham ultimately formed a close alliance with the president, he previously publicly criticized him multiple times.<\/p>\n

A decade ago, Graham was a critic of Trump when the then-candidate ran for president for the first time. The senator also briefly ran for president in the 2016 cycle. Ahead of Trump securing the GOP nomination,\u00a0Graham said that Trump<\/a>\u00a0ran \u201ca campaign on xenophobia, race-baiting, religious bigotry \u2014 that cannot be Republican conservatism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham said that\u00a0he did not vote<\/a>\u00a0for Trump nor then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.<\/p>\n

The senator also broke with Trump in the hours after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump and I, we\u2019ve had a hell of a journey,\u201d Graham said in a speech at the time. \u201cI hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he\u2019s been a consequential president, but today, first thing you\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I can say is a count me out. Enough is enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe proposal would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require specific documents showing proof of U.S citizenship for a person to register to vote in federal elections.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Weeks later, he voted to acquit Trump after his impeachment, saying\u00a0in a statement<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthis was an impeachment effort driven by passion and hatred against President Trump.\u201d He went on to\u00a0support Trump<\/a>\u00a0in the 2024 election.<\/p>\n

Trump discussed the evolution of their relationship, saying on \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that he got to know Graham during the 2016 campaign. The senator \u201crespected\u201d that Trump won the primary in South Carolina, Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sort of got a little bit friendly, and just the friendship grew,\u201d Trump continued. \u201cIt just grew, and he was an amazing advocate. He was \u2014 I don\u2019t know how you find anybody like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham, who was up for reelection this fall, was endorsed by Trump, who said in the endorsement that Graham was \u201ca wonderful friend to me\u201d and someone who \u201chas always been there when I needed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senator thanked Trump in his\u00a0own social media post<\/a>, touting their personal and professional relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a professional level, I am proud to have been there at the beginning when President Trump \u2014 through sheer force of will \u2014achieved the greatest political comeback in American history,\u201d Graham said, thanking Trump in March 2025 for his endorsement. \u201cOn a personal level, I genuinely enjoy our friendship. He\u2019s an awesome golfing buddy, who I have yet to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Wong and Frank Thorp V contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump told NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d Sunday that he spoke with\u00a0Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[145,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-370554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-donald-trump","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}