Donald Trump has ended his eulogy for Lindsey Graham, calling the late senator “strong and steadfast.”
“As a brother, a senator, a warrior, and a patriot, he withstood every last test, every single test that you can go through in every trial… Lindsey, we love you. God bless you,” Trump said.
Key events
George Chidi
Elsewhere today, Democratic mayors from around the country have convened in Atlanta for a quiet conversation about managing cities amid the provocations of the Trump Admniistration.
The theme for the conference is “Mayors Deliver”, with discussion about housing, public safety, affordability, jobs and other Democratic touchstones.
DNC chair Ken Martin, under fire and managing internecine conflict within the party, was on the panel of speakers opening the event this morning, as was former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms – the Democratic nominee in the Georgia governor’s race – and Atlanta’s current mayor Andre Dickens.
Industry groups, including those from the surveillance camera, artificial intelligence and data center sectors, feature on the discussion calendar. Attendees will also be discussing election security and voter turnout.
Quentin Lucas, mayor of Kansas City and president of the Democratic Mayor Association, described the fraught relationship his city’s political establishment has with Republican state and federal leaders. Republicans feel it necessary to signal their fidelity to the president and his agenda with increasingly harsh attacks on Democratic-led city governments, he said.
“It’s the problem of modern politics,” the progressive mayor said of Mike Kehoe, Missouri’s conservative Republican governor. “He’s a good Christian man. I believe I am too, so we have perfectly fine conversations. In Donald Trump’s America, you can sit with somebody and share things and talk about family and all of that. But when you ask, ‘Hey, can I get a common-sense, moderate appointed to this board? Can we protect a congressional district in a state with only two Black congresspeople and two Democratic seats?’ The answer is often, ‘I gotta do what I gotta do.’ And I think that to me is probably the greatest challenge.”
Lucas is facing a federal lawsuit initiated by Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, a Republican. The 22 July filing alleges that the city’s Minority and Women Business Enterprise contracting program unlawfully uses race and sex in awarding public contracts and violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Missouri man at the center of the suit has a decades-old federal fraud conviction, which the attorney general’s office ignored before filing suit.
Lucas likened the suit to the president drawing city names at random out of a hat to attack. He described the suit as yet another attack on Democratic governance facilitated by the erosion of longstanding legal norms under Trump.
double quotation mark I’ve been thinking this for years. Trump is the accelerant for all of it. The goal is to have no Black people in power, no Black people in the upper reaches of business. And its odd, because Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate who actually could get some minority numbers. But they are so – in some ways – uncomfortable with fighting it out for real, trying to persuade people of different backgrounds, which is something me and Andre [Dickens of Atlanta], and every mayor of an American city – except for the really, really Black ones – have had to do.
Sean Hannity also addressed Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that Lindsey Graham “loved you, he loved the state of Israel, he loved the people of Israel”.
He said Graham was Israel’s strongest ally in the Senate and “would have been blown away” that Netanyahu came to his funeral.
Sean Hannity went on to recognize Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is also in attendance at Lindsey Graham’s funeral.
Hannity said: “President Zelenskyy, I know that Lindsey would have been deeply moved and honored that you made this long journey to be here today.”
He added: “In our private conversations, he often marveled at your strength against the world, one of the world’s most brutal regimes. He saw you, as he said it to me once, as a warrior poet or a warrior comedian, to use those terms, and on paper, I think everybody would agree.”
Eulogizing Lindsey Graham, Fox News host Sean Hannity said the South Carolina senator was “great for ratings because people listened to him.”
“He drew you in, he had that passion to draw you in so far that, I was very grateful” Hannity said.
He also acknowledged Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s presence in the cathedral, saying: “Lindsey would have been blown away that you took this long journey…to be here today.”
Reflecting on Graham’s staunch support for Israel, Hannity said: “Just as president Trump has been Israel’s strongest friend in the history of the White House… Lindsey was that friend to Israel in the United States senate as long as I’ve known this man.”
Donald Trump has ended his eulogy for Lindsey Graham, calling the late senator “strong and steadfast.”
“As a brother, a senator, a warrior, and a patriot, he withstood every last test, every single test that you can go through in every trial… Lindsey, we love you. God bless you,” Trump said.
Donald Trump, who ran against Lindsey Graham in the 2016 presidential election, said that “Lindsey and I did not exactly get off to the best of starts.”
Recalling his leaking of Graham’s phone number to the public after Graham called him a “jackass” during the presidential race, Trump said: “It was Lindsey who had the last laugh because while I blew up his phone all for one day, we became great friends, and Lindsey did not stop calling me for the next 10 years. It was not easy.”
Trump: Lindsey Graham ‘never saw a war that he didn’t like’
Donald Trump said Lindsey Graham was “extremely hawkish,” adding: “I will tell you, he never saw a war that he didn’t like. Only his true friends would understand that. But he wanted it for the good of our country.”
Throughout his career, Graham supported the US’s involvement in multiple wars, including its invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the US support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US’s latest war against Iran.
Donald Trump went off script for a brief moment, calling Lindsey Graham “a tough cookie.”
“But no matter how heated things got in Washington, virtually everyone, Republican or Democrat, liked Lindsey. Well, not everybody, but it sounds good. Not everybody,” Trump said.
He continued: “He was a tough cookie, Okay? I have to veer from this for a second. He was a tough cookie, Darline, but he was beautiful.”
Speaking about Darline Graham, Lindsey Graham’s sister who was appointed into his role after her brother’s death, Donald Trump said:
“He had total respect and love for Darline. Nothing could be more fitting than that woman who was Lindsey’s proudest legacy, now continues his legacy of service in the US Senate, a place that he cherished. I have no doubt that he is looking down today, beaming with pride at his sister, senator Darline Graham.”
“He died doing the work he was born to do, he was truly a great politician, serving the country he loved to serve so deeply,” Donald Trump said of Lindsey Graham.
“He went out at the peak of his career, the top of his game as a legend that every one of us, many of us here today, blessed to know him and a friend that none of us will ever forget,” he added.
Trump: Graham was ‘true American original’
Donald Trump is now at the podium, beginning his eulogy for Lindsey Graham who he described as a “true American original.”
Aram Roston
With Lindsey Graham’s funeral now underway, here is Guardian reporter Aram Roston’s dispatch from just a few moments earlier:
I’m outside the National Cathedral where the Lindsay Graham funeral is to take place. It’s a very quiet scene with few people around. Wisconsin Avenue is completely closed to traffic. there’s about two dozen metropolitan police cars and an extensive Secret Service presence. This is obviously being considered a very high profile security threat and they’ve locked it down. They are searching the buses bringing guests.
There very few protesters. At edge of the security site, a handful of local residents are waving an American flag, a Ukrainian flag and a NATO flag. One woman was wearing a “childless cat ladies against fascism” T-shirt said she doesn’t remember security anywhere near as extensive as this at previous funerals. “This is insane. We’ve never seen it like this,” she said.
Another said: “We’re here in support of democracy.”
At the north end of the security fence, about a dozen silent protesters held Palestinian flags. One of the protesters, who gave her first name as Sumer, said they were at the funeral because “[Benjamin] Netanyahu should not be here.” Graham, she said was a war criminal because of his support of Israel’s operations. “He’s not someone who deserves an honorary funeral,” she added.
The funeral service for Lindsey Graham is now underway at the Washington National Catheral.
In attendance are several high profile White House officials including Donald Trump, JD Vance, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, interior secretary Doug Burgum, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, among others.
Trump leaves White House to attend Lindsey Graham’s funeral
Donald Trump’s motorcade has left the White House and is en route to the funeral service for Lindsey Graham at Washington National Cathedral. The president is due to deliver a eulogy at 2pm ET.
