President Trump hailed Sen. Lindsey Graham as “a true American original,” leading the country in memorializing the late lawmaker during Tuesday’s funeral service in Washington.
“He was the first person to make you laugh and one of the last people that you’d really ever want to fight. These were the traits that made him into one of the great figures in Senate history,” the president said.
The senator died on July 11 at age 71 of heart disease.
Mr. Trump, with whom Mr. Graham forged a surprising and fruitful alliance, called him “a legend” and “a giant of the United States Senate.”
He spoke to a packed service at Washington National Cathedral, though often addressed his remarks personally to Mr. Graham’s sister, Darline, who was appointed to fill her late brother’s South Carolina seat.
The president, reading from prepared remarks, said everybody loved Mr. Graham — then paused and said he had to depart from the written speech.
“Not everybody,” he ad-libbed. “He was a tough cookie, Darline. But he was beautiful.”
The president then went on: “For more than 30 years, nothing of consequence happened in this capital without Lindsey Graham knowing about it. Nothing of significance happened anywhere in the world without Lindsey Graham having a view on it. And no bill became a law in the most exceptional republic in human history without Lindsey Graham having a say in it.”
He recalled the friendship, which emerged after the two men battled for the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2016. At one point during the campaign, Mr. Trump, furious at Mr. Graham, publicly revealed the senator’s personal cell number.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump admitted it was “something I shouldn’t have done.”
“I remember the number — 202-228-0292 — if anybody wants to give it a shot,” he said, drawing laughter from the congregation. “It was Lindsey who had the last laugh because while it blew up his phone for one day, we became great friends, and Lindsey did not stop calling me for the next 10 years.”
