Politics

Trump Reveals Why Lindsey Graham Went From Being Rival He Once Doxxed To His Biggest Fan Almost Overnight

[Screenshot/YouTube/Meet The Press]

President Donald Trump traced his friendship with the late Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham back to a single moment: crushing him in his own home state in 2016.

Trump phoned into NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, just hours after Graham died from a “brief and sudden illness,” according to CBS News. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replaced Graham, who was scheduled to go on the program Sunday morning, The Hill reported.

“I got to know Lindsey during the campaign. I didn’t really know him then,” Trump said. “He was tough, but he said, ‘I’ll see you in South Carolina’ … But when it came to South Carolina, I won South Carolina by a lot, and I sort of ran the table on everybody, and it was good. … He respected it, and we sort of got a little bit friendly, and just the friendship grew.”

Trump and Graham were fierce opponents early in the 2016 Republican primary, Politico reported. Trump read Graham’s personal cellphone number aloud at a July 2015 campaign rally in South Carolina after the senator called him a “jackass.”

Trump mocked Graham’s intelligence at the same event, saying he didn’t seem “like a very bright guy,” according to Politico.

“He was an amazing advocate. I don’t know how you find anybody like him. He was so intent,” Trump said on “Meet the Press.” “I mean, he literally called me about the Save America Act … Think of it: He’s traveling for many, many hours. That’s a long flight … And he, you know, calls me about the Save America Act. He thought we were going to get it passed.”

Graham called the president Saturday evening about the SAVE America Act after he returned from a trip to Ukraine, according to The Hill.

“This is a big blow to the Save America Act,” Trump said.

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“I said, ‘We’ll see you soon. Come over anytime you want,’” Trump said, recalling his final words to Graham. “He came into the White House a lot because I liked him. Can’t do that with everybody … [H]e was a great … temperature gauge of the Senate.”

“[H]onestly, he was a great politician. People don’t realize what a good politician he was. He could go in and get something approved. He would just get people on his side,” Trump added.

Netanyahu appeared later in the Sunday broadcast to pay tribute to Graham, and he recounted the senator’s push for larger U.S. military aid packages to Israel.

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“He would argue with me. He would say, ‘No, you know, for [Israel’s] ballistic missile defense … Whatever is the number, it has to be bigger.’ And I said, ‘Lindsey, we can do with a smaller number.’ He said, ‘No, you can’t,’” Netanyahu said. “And then he would go to the Senate, and — actually, can you imagine this — he would outbid the prime minister of Israel.”

“[Graham] said, ‘I’m not getting a single vote in South Carolina for that because you know there are very few Jews in South Carolina, and the people, yes, they support Israel … but I support Israel, and I think you need more. And I’m going to fight for this,’” Netanyahu said. “This is who Lindsey Graham was.”