Lindsey Graham

Last of the Neocon 'Three Amigos': Lindsey Graham Dies Unexpectedly

The one thing Graham was consistent about was his enthusiasm for foreign wars.

Matthew Petti | 7.13.2026 9:45 AM

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(Credit: Polaris/Newscom)

Lindsey Graham died doing what he loved: egging on faraway violence. After returning from a trip to a drone factory in Ukraine, the Republican senator from South Carolina suddenly came down with chest pains. One of his last acts was phoning President Donald Trump—a man who Graham had once called "unfit for office"—to push for more aggressive policies in Europe and the Middle East.

"I can't die now. I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out, and do Israeli-Saudi normalization," Graham reportedly joked to the people around him, feeling ill after his call with Trump. But about half an hour after being called to Graham's house on Saturday night, medics reported that the 71-year-old senator was undergoing cardiac arrest. The medical examiner declared Graham dead of an aortic dissection caused by high blood pressure.

Graham was the last surviving member of the "Three Amigos," a gaggle of hawkish senators that included John McCain, a Republican, and Joe Lieberman, a Democrat turned independent. Although he shared their foreign policy goals, Graham may have been the most morally flexible of the three. Unlike McCain, who stuck with his opposition to Trump until his last dying days, Graham twice flattered his way back into Trump's graces after abandoning him. And he whispered in the ear of Trump's rival, President Joe Biden, as well.

"If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…and we will deserve it," Graham had declared during the 2016 election, calling Trump a "race-baiting" lunatic. Two years later, Graham was showering Trump with praise and claiming that McCain would have done the same. During the 2020 election, Graham argued that Trump should never concede. When........

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