‘A key link’: Trump’s Senate whisperer is gone

President Donald Trump has lost one of the foremost political allies he relied on to navigate the Senate and help move his legislative priorities.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who died late Saturday, served as one of the Senate GOP's most trusted channels into Trump's orbit, translating the president's demands to skeptical senators while explaining the realities of the Senate back to the White House.

"He could go in and get something approved," Trump said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," reflecting on Graham's political skills. "He would just get people on his side. … I wouldn't often ask, but if I had a problem with a Democrat he could work it out."

Trump said Graham called him just hours before he died to discuss the SAVE America Act, the GOP elections bill that has stalled for months in the Senate. Graham supported the legislation but frequently explained how most Senate Republicans did not want to eliminate the 60-vote filibuster rule to pass it.

It was one of several points of friction between the White House and the more tradition-bound Senate that needed to be smoothed over by Graham and others during Trump's first and second terms.

He eased tensions during hot conversations between Senate Republicans and the president, and helped shepherd last year's "big, beautiful bill" and this year's immigration enforcement bill. But Graham's power had its limits: He was among the most ardent supporters for strong U.S. support for Ukraine, a position Trump didn't embrace as fervently.

"His role in the Senate and his role as a liaison between the administration and the Senate and trusted confidant and adviser was colossal," said a White House official who like others in this report was granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. "It's a devastating development. Everyone who touches the legislature and the administration is crushed."

Graham's ability to communicate with and persuade the executive branch was "multidimensional — from rounds of golf, to appearances on television, to dinner with administration officials," a person close to the administration said. "I think the senator saw his relationship as a loyal and longtime friend trying to help navigate the president's priorities through the Senate."

In turn, "Senate leadership saw Lindsey as a key link — whether as a colleague, chairman, counselor, or conduit," the person said.

There are several Republicans with strong relationships with the White House. Still, replacing the role that Graham filled — combining a close relationship with Trump, the ability to cut deals with Democrats and decades of national security experience — won't be easy. Graham's death comes after another Trump White House ally in the chamber, former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, departed to become Homeland Security secretary.

The White House official said "it's too soon to say" who might take up the mantle as Trump's Senate whisperer.

Other senators including Katie Britt of Alabama, Rick Scott of Florida, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee are known to speak frequently with Trump. But none bring the long experience in the Senate and the volume of relationships domestically and abroad that made Graham a singular resource for the president — to say nothing of his personal skills in translating between the White House and Capitol Hill.

"Lindsey spoke Trump more fluent than anyone in the Senate," said a senior adviser to a Republican senator.

"He's close with Rick Scott, but so few people like him," a second White House official said. "I could see Katie Britt trying to fill that void."

Graham's role has been particularly important as Trump's relationship with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the Senate GOP conference has been strained in recent months over the president's anger about Republicans' unwillingness to blow up the filibuster to pass the GOP elections bill.

Graham's influence on the president has been increasingly apparent during Trump's second term.

Shortly after Trump won in 2024, the two brainstormed during one of their frequent golf outings about what to accomplish. Graham later recalled how he encouraged Trump to "blow some shit up" to combat drug trafficking and how to confront Iran, both of which came to fruition. Graham was in frequent contact with Trump and foreign leaders in the lead-up to the president's decision to bolster the case for striking Iran.

As chairman of the Budget Committee, he helped shepherd two major Trump policy bills through the Senate and was preparing for a third attempt this fall. During last year's debate over the "big, beautiful bill," Graham was one of the central figures trying to keep the conference together as conservative hardliners and moderate Republicans sparred.

"I'll never forget the Senate lunch, when a couple Senators were a tad off the program, and Lindsey — in his inimitable way — made sure everyone was onside by the time we left," White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller wrote on X.

During the long shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year, Graham traveled with Sens. Britt, Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) to the White House in March in a bid to sell Trump on a plan to use the reconciliation process to end the standoff with Democrats. And he and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) went to the White House in April to pitch Trump on the Senate's vision of a narrowly tailored immigration funding bill. The president, in a win for Thune and Graham, endorsed the Senate's strategy shortly after the meeting.

After Trump blew up plans to renew a key surveillance tool and Jay Clayton's director of national intelligence nomination in June, Senate Republicans privately floated Graham as someone who could help detangle the stalemate with Trump given his relationship with the president and role as a national security hawk, according to two people granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Graham was also part of a bipartisan group of senators who had spent months negotiating with the White House over a new package of sanctions targeting Russia's trading partners — announcing just last week that they had reached an agreement with the administration allowing it to move forward.

What made Graham's role as Senate liaison all the more surprising is how the relationship between Trump and Graham began: as tense political rivals for the presidential nomination a decade ago.

"If you had told me in 2016, that I would wind up being one of his better friends, closest advisers, and admire him as commander in chief I wouldn't have believed you," Graham said in an interview with POLITICO earlier this year.

"I think what the president sees in me is somebody that can deliver," he added. "He tells everybody, 'You know, he can get things done.'"

Dasha Burns and Megan Messerly contributed to this report.