{"id":217278,"date":"2026-07-16T11:24:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trumps-barbed-eulogy-for-lindsey-graham-reveals-how-fragile-his-ego-is-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T11:24:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:24:02","slug":"trumps-barbed-eulogy-for-lindsey-graham-reveals-how-fragile-his-ego-is-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trumps-barbed-eulogy-for-lindsey-graham-reveals-how-fragile-his-ego-is-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s barbed eulogy for Lindsey Graham reveals how fragile his ego is – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

In interviews and social posts, the loyalty-obsessed president couldn\u2019t help but weave criticism into his praise
This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland. <\/strong>Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday<\/strong><\/a>
Normal procedure in the immediate aftermath of an unexpected death is to shower the deceased with praise, irrespective of whether it is deserved.
Donald Trump, commemorating Lindsey Graham in recent days, has taken a different tack, sometimes extolling the South Carolina senator\u2019s virtues but at other times rather diminishing the newly deceased 71-year-old.
Add eulogies to the list of things Trump does with total confidence and questionable skill.
On Monday, for example, in an interview<\/a> with Fox News, Trump remembered Graham as someone who called him too much, as a poor golfer and, in the manner of a person remembering a pet labrador, as someone who \u201cloved being outside\u201d.
There was praise, sure, but it was tempered with criticism, as if the president\u2019s famously fragile ego meant he needed to assert dominance over Graham, even after the latter\u2019s death.
Invited to remember Graham in that Fox News interview, Trump responded: \u201cHe was a great guy, and he was a friend. He would call me all the time. He would just \u2026 I\u2019d say: \u2018Stop calling me, Lindsey.\u2019\u201d
Trump added: \u201cHe was just \u2013 he was amazing. You know, he just didn\u2019t stop and he would be \u2013 he was a worker. He was a total workaholic politician. Now, some people don\u2019t call that work. Some people call that a lot of talking. But everybody loved him.\u201d
On Truth Social, Trump was more enthusiastic, peppering his tribute with exclamation marks.
\u201cSenator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead!\u201d Trump announced <\/a>on Sunday night. \u201cHe was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!!\u201d
And then he pivoted to funeral director with his last line: \u201cDETAILS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO FOLLOW. So sad!\u201d
Trump\u2019s backhanded compliments and mixed reviews spoke to the complicated relationship he had with Graham. While running for president in 2016, Graham described Trump as a \u201cjackass\u201d and \u201ca race-baiting bigot\u201d. After Trump won that election, Graham made a complete U-turn, becoming \u2013 like most of his Republican colleagues \u2013 a Trump lickspittle, but after the January 6 insurrection, he (briefly) broke with the president.
\u201cTrump and I, we\u2019ve had a hell of a journey \u2013 I hate it to end this way,\u201d he said in a speech at the time. \u201cOh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he\u2019s been a consequential president but today, first thing you\u2019ll see. All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.\u201d
Graham reversed course soon after, returning to the Trump fold and just last month praising the president<\/a> as \u201cnot far behind God\u201d. But Trump is not known for his short memory when it comes to disloyalty.
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\u201cHe had one bad moment, that was the Jan 6 thing, when he stood up: \u2018All right, now I\u2019ve had it. That\u2019s it. I can\u2019t do it any more,\u2019\u201d Trump told Fox News.
\u201cThen he called me about 40 minutes later and he said: \u2018Did I really say that? I can\u2019t believe it,\u2019 and he took it back. So I give him a 99 instead of a 100.\u201d
Trump went on to gloat about how he won the 2016 Republican primary in South Carolina, after Graham was forced to suspend his campaign<\/a>.
However much Trump appreciated Graham\u2019s subservience, he just couldn\u2019t drop that sporadic criticism.
\u201cHe\u2019d play golf with people and you just liked him,\u201d Trump remembered of Graham on Monday. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that he was a great striker of the ball it wasn\u2019t, he wasn\u2019t exactly a perfect \u2013 he wasn\u2019t Jack Nicklaus, he was not Tiger.\u201d
There was something revealing across all of Trump\u2019s comments: a reminder, perhaps, that Trump\u2019s fragility means he always has to be number one, always has to be dominant \u2013 even if the person he is dominating is now dead.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In interviews and social posts, the loyalty-obsessed president couldn\u2019t help but weave criticism into his praiseThis was originally published in This Week in Trumpland. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every WednesdayNormal procedure in the immediate aftermath of an unexpected death is to shower the deceased with praise, irrespective of whether it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":217279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}