Donald Trump said he spoke with Lindsey Graham over the phone right before he died.
The Republican senator, who died at age 71 after a “brief and sudden illness” on Saturday, July 11, was scheduled to appear on NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday, July 12.
Lindsey Graham (left) and Donald Trump (right) in January 2026, Donald Trump in December 2025.
Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty; Anna Moneymaker/Getty
Trump, 80, instead made a last-minute appearance. There, he told host Kristen Welker that he spoke with Graham shortly before his death.
“[He told me] nothing, he said he was feeling a little tired,” Trump said.
Then nodding to Graham’s recent trip to Ukraine, the president continued, “It was a long trip, you know, many hours, and he had just gotten back.”