WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham has something that most of his Republican colleagues don’t: the freedom to disagree with President Donald Trump, yet remain one of his closest allies.
“I’m his north star,” Graham told NBC News in an interview this week, a bold remark few in his party would dare make. “We disagree, but he knows where I am coming from. He sees me helping him as much as anybody in the Senate.”
Late last month, Graham temporarily blocked a $1.2 trillion deal to avert a government shutdown. Asked by reporters why he would block something that Trump himself had signed off on, Graham interjected: “You know what? I’m a senator. I like President Trump a lot. You didn’t negotiate with me.”
Graham was pushing an unpopular provision to allow a group of eight senators, himself included, to sue the government after their phone records were obtained in a special counsel investigation without notification. Even the White House didn’t like it, but Graham said he didn’t care.
“I’m an ally of the White House; I’m not owned by them,” he told NBC News at the time.
He brought up Jan. 6, 2021, noting he’d given a speech that night affirming that Joe Biden had won the 2020 election, a topic most Republicans avoid and a fact that Trump still frequently disputes.
The shrewd South Carolinian’s straight talk with Trump is nevertheless a far cry from the 2016 presidential race, when Graham — then running against Trump — blasted his opponent as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who would destroy the Republican Party.
Still, Graham’s flashes of independence from Trump and his White House are extremely rare in a party where loyalty to the president is prized above all else, and congressional Republicans are reluctant to show even a sliver of daylight with the president — or risk being pushed out of elected office.
Graham dropped his hold on Trump’s deal with Senate Democrats within hours; then, he voted for it, as he’d said he would. Days later, Graham was in the Oval Office, praising Trump’s tough immigration approach and holding a red “America is Back” hat as the president signed the bill.
Asked how he’s able to maintain such a close relationship with Trump while sometimes disagreeing with him, Graham joked: “Well, one, be mildly entertaining. Play golf. And understand he’s been a great president.”
“Sometimes I don’t agree,” he said. But he added: “You know what we have in common? I like him and he likes him.”
Lobbying Trump on foreign policy
Foreign policy has been Graham’s priority during his three decades in the Senate and House. This weekend, he’s participating in the Munich Security Conference, which he attended for years with the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., his close friend and a fierce critic of Trump.
In the past, Graham’s hawkish, interventionist views have often been at odds with Trump’s “America First” policies, but the senator hasn’t publicly criticized the president on foreign policy during his second term. He defended Trump’s military strikes in Venezuela and on drug boats in the Caribbean.
For nearly a year, Graham has aggressively lobbied Trump, in private as well as in public, to come around to backing Ukraine and imposing new sanctions on Russia, said a person close to the senator who, like others in this article, requested anonymity to speak candidly. Graham announced the administration’s support for sanctions against Russia before Trump had even weighed in, but he hasn’t seemed to get results. More than a month later, the issue still has not come up for a vote, though Graham and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., insisted Friday that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., could soon put the package on the floor.
Graham has also made declarative statements on Trump’s position on Iran. Last month, the senator said “help is on the way” for Iranian protesters being killed, suggesting Trump would act militarily against the country’s regime. So far, that has not materialized.
“Every indication that I’ve seen says that this Iranian regime’s killing of protestors is still very much in full swing,” Graham posted on X last month, contradicting Trump, who said the killings had stopped. “The death toll is mounting by the hour.”
Primary threat
Like in past elections, Graham is facing primary challenges from the right as he runs for a fifth six-year Senate term. Paul Dans, architect of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s conservative policy transition blueprint for Trump, and wealthy, self-funding businessman Mark Lynch, are both challenging the 70-year-old.
In the ruby-red Palmetto State, the only thing Graham needs to worry about is a primary challenge. Trump gave Graham his “Complete and Total Endorsement” last March, and Graham has had Trump call into political events in South Carolina to reiterate his support.
Graham easily fended off conservative challenges in 2020 and 2014, when opponents attacked him for his early bipartisan efforts to enact comprehensive immigration reform. One of those 2014 rivals was Nancy Mace, now a congresswoman running for governor of South Carolina.
But two years later, Trump seized control of the Republican Party and the White House, warning that Mexico was sending drug dealers, criminals and “rapists” to the U.S. Graham quickly changed his tune, taking a harder line on immigration and sticking close to Trump on the issue. This year, he’s been pushing for passage of his bill to end sanctuary city policies.
“He’s supporting President Trump and deporting violent illegal aliens, and I support that too. I support President Trump as well,” Mace told NBC News, adding she and Graham now have a “good relationship.”
“He’s going to win his re-election,” she said.
Graham suggested to NBC News that he’s not taking anything for granted and that he’s “always concerned” about primary challengers.
Dans, who is backed by conservative media personality Tucker Carlson, called his race against Graham “a battle for the future of MAGA.” He noted that Trump endorsed Graham “long before” he got in the race — suggesting the president could decide to make a switch before the June 9 primary.
“I wouldn’t think so,” Graham said when asked about the possibility. “That guy is at 4%.”
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, characterized Graham as an important partner: “Senator Graham is a close ally to the President and plays a critical role in helping to advance the President’s America First Agenda in the Senate.”
The senator is also a regular guest in the White House — “No one is at the White House more than Graham,” one Senate colleague said — and the two are frequent golf partners. It’s Trump’s favorite pastime, which gives Graham hours of unfettered access to the commander in chief.
Last weekend, Trump invited Graham and Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., to golf at his club in West Palm Beach. “Very good golfer, a better President. Reagan Plus,” Graham posted on X with a photo of the trio. The next day, Graham was again by the president’s side at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Super Bowl party.
Proximity to Trump — whether it’s at the White House north or south — allows Graham to know who’s advising him, what he’s thinking and what decisions are being made.
“Let’s put it this way: I’ve heard senators say things. Most of them are very uninformed about what actually goes on at the White House,” Graham said.
