US President Donald Trump paid tribute to the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham at a memorial service at Washington Nationial Cathedral on Tuesday.
“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,” Trump said of his ally.
He described Graham as “a beloved friend, a devoted brother, a respected statesman, a giant of the United States Senate and a true American original.”
Graham died earlier this month at the end of 71 from complications of a vascular disease.
Graham was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 1994, representing the southern state of South Carolina, before moving to the Senate in 2003.
He was regarded as an experienced foreign policy expert and dealt with major conflict zones. Just a few days before his death, he was in Kiev, where he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the White House supported a new Russian sanctions bill.
Graham had also called for “regime change” in Iran and endorsed US and Israeli military strikes on the country.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Zelensky both attended the memorial service, having earlier had private bilateral meetings with Trump at the White House.
