Trump Veers From Script to Mock Lindsey Graham at His Own Funeral

The president couldn’t resist taking issue with his speechwriters again Tuesday—even as he was in the midst of delivering a eulogy for late South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

Graham’s funeral drew TV personalities, top lawmakers, and foreign heads of state, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Yet Donald Trump didn’t hesitate to veer wildly off course from his pre-written remarks while recalling Graham’s life before the elite crowd, pushing back on one critical detail: Graham’s popularity.

“Virtually everyone—Republican or Democrat—liked Lindsey,” said Trump before jumping from his script. “Well, not everybody. But it sounds good. Not everybody. He was a tough cookie, OK? I have to be—I have to veer from this for a second.

“He was a tough cookie, Darline, but he was beautiful,” Trump added, addressing Graham’s younger sister and temporary legislative successor, Darline Graham Nordone.
Trump takes issue with the Lindsey Graham eulogy he's reading: "Virtually everyone liked Lindsey. Well, not everybody. But it sounds good. I have to be honest. I have to veer from this for a second." pic.twitter.com/L5JwAXxWi0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 28, 2026
Graham passed away on July 11 after what his office described as a “brief and sudden illness.” The next morning, a preliminary medical report found that Graham had died from a tear in his aorta due to the hardening of his arteries.

During his brief remarks before the mourning crowd, Trump acknowledged that he and Graham had become close friends during his time in politics, fondly recounting the time he publicized Graham’s cell phone number during a heated debate during the 2016 presidential election.

“He said, ‘I had that number for 20 years.’ His phone totally—I don’t know what he did with it. But it exploded. That was the beginning of friendship in a way,” Trump said. “But it was Lindsey who had the last laugh, because while I blew up his phone for one day, we became great friends and Lindsey did not stop calling me for the next 10 years.”

He also reminisced about Graham’s warmongering, sharing with the assembly that Graham “never saw a war he didn’t like.”

“He felt in his bones that our destiny is to win, and that his job was to do everything he could to ensure our enemies would lose,” Trump said. ...