When the first of the Three Amigos died, the service at Washington National Cathedral felt like a repudiation of President Trump, who was not invited and not welcome. When the last of the amigos departed this life, the service felt like an affirmation of Mr. Trump, who was not only invited but led the tributes.
From John McCain to Lindsey Graham, two members of a trio of senators once so close that they compared their friendship to a marriage, the stark difference between two services in the same majestic cathedral eight years and worlds apart exemplified how much has changed in the nation’s capital. It may not have been Donald Trump’s Washington in 2018 but it most assuredly is in 2026.
The pomp-and-circumstance farewell to Mr. Graham, the longtime Republican senator from South Carolina who died at 71 this month, showcased the current power structure. Until now, Mr. Trump had never been asked to deliver a eulogy for any of the presidents, senators and cabinet secretaries memorialized at the cathedral. But there he was on Tuesday in the iconic stone lectern extolling one of his most important converts in a city that has likewise had to accommodate itself.
“For more than 30 years, nothing of consequence happened in this capital without Lindsey Graham knowing about it,” Mr. Trump told a few thousand mourners. “Nothing of significance happened anywhere in the world without Lindsey Graham having a view on it. And no bill became law in the most exceptional republic in human history without Lindsey Graham having a say in it.”
It was that level of influence that appealed to Mr. Graham, who had once denounced Mr. Trump as a racist, xenophobic, ignorant, unqualified demagogue only to make himself into the president’s closest ally on Capitol Hill. Neither Mr. McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, nor Joseph I. Lieberman, a Democratic senator from Connecticut and the third of the amigos, could bring themselves to accept Mr. Trump. But Mr. Graham did.
That was a theme of the recollections of Mr. Graham, whose political evolution alternately captivated and confused many of his old friends. So much so, in fact, that Sean Hannity, the Fox News evening host and conservative favorite who hosted the senator regularly on his show, used his tribute at the cathedral to thank Mr. Trump for embracing and empowering Mr. Graham.
“Mr. President, he would be so honored, so honored that you are here today,” Mr. Hannity said, addressing Mr. Trump from the lectern. “He loved you as he loved his country. He loved the times you played golf. I heard about every single, solitary hole. He loved the meals that you shared. He loved the late-night conversations you had. And Mr. President, you gave him the greatest gift of his life and that was a front-row seat at the highest levels of history in the making. It meant the world to him.”
Mr. Graham was a singular character in Washington, a “giant of the United States Senate,” as Mr. Trump put it, and a “force of nature,” as Mr. Hannity said. But those are phrases that would apply to many whose caskets have laid in the cathedral over the years. Unlike most of them, Mr. Graham stood out as a vivid personality, always pithy, often insightful, sometimes biting.
He simply did not fit the cookie-cutter Washington mold. He had little time for staid, heavily edited speeches and all the time in the world for freewheeling Sunday talk shows. He liked to riff. He liked to tease. He liked to surprise and provoke. He could be funny and angry, charming and exasperating, sometimes all at once.
Vice President JD Vance remembered Mr. Graham as a larger-than-life figure who, despite being among the shorter senators, carried himself with a certain swagger. “He swash-buckled in with his jacket open like he was 6-foot-5,” Mr. Vance said at a ceremony in the Capitol before the cathedral service.
Later in the day, Mr. Trump said that “virtually everyone, Republican or Democrat, liked Lindsey,” then stopped and corrected himself. “Well, not everybody,” he acknowledged. “But it sounds good. Not everybody. He was a tough cookie.”
Among those who did like him were Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, both of whom relied on Mr. Graham to lobby for their wartime causes with Mr. Trump and both of whom flew across the ocean to honor him.
His rise from a pool hall to the halls of Congress was an inspiring made-in-America success story that helped fuel his 31 years in the House and Senate. Never married, he was devoted to his office and managed to integrate himself into the capital without shedding his South Carolina accent or roots.
“Senator Graham was very Washington, if you know what I mean,” the Rev. Tim Tate, the senator’s South Carolina pastor, said in his homily. “But he was also very small town.”
While never having children of his own, Mr. Graham was devoted to his younger sister, Darline Graham, who has now been appointed to his Senate seat, and her family. Emillie Boggs Roberts, his niece, recalled how he probably “saved my life” once by getting help when she lost consciousness after brain surgery.
She said she had just told her mother that she was pregnant on the day her uncle died and her mother promptly picked up the phone to call and share the good news. “She never got to tell him,” Ms. Roberts said, “but I have no doubt that he knows and is thrilled.”
Mr. Graham had a puckish sense of humor. “We laughed nonstop,” Mr. Hannity recalled. “We laughed often about many of you in this room.” He allowed that Mr. Graham was unpredictable and so “it was always a bit risky to have Lindsey on your TV show” but “Senator Graham was great for ratings,” not to mention a “shameless self-promoter.”
Mr. Hannity tried to push back against what he called the “false criticism” that Mr. Graham was “a warmonger,” as he put it. “The truth was the opposite.” But even Mr. Trump did not buy that. “He never saw a war that he didn’t like,” the president said.
It was striking that the service for Mr. Graham, who made his mark as a national security conservative, leaned so heavily toward the social conservative side of the party. None of his comrades from the military, where he served in the Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves for 33 years, or his allies from foreign policy fights were asked to speak.
The three readings were delivered by the Rev. Franklin Graham, the evangelical minister; Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council; and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Nor were any Democrats included in the program despite Mr. Graham’s long record of trying to work across the aisle on issues like immigration. There was a time when he was a member of “every Senate gang,” as Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, put it after his death, every bipartisan Gang of 8 or Gang of 14 that tried to forge a deal on some stalemated issue. But that was another era. There are no bipartisan gangs anymore and Mr. Graham’s alliances with Democrats were more sparing.
His last major endeavor with Democrats and Republicans was legislation to further punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, legislation he sponsored along with Senator Dick Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut. A bipartisan group of senators announced before the service that they had reached a deal on that bill and planned to bring it to the floor for a vote later in the day in Mr. Graham’s honor.
Many Democrats attended the services on Capitol Hill and at the cathedral, a testament to their lasting personal affection for Mr. Graham and a nod to the rituals of the capital. Not on hand, however, was former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who was once close to Mr. Graham but grew estranged when the senator joined Mr. Trump’s attacks on his son Hunter Biden.
It said something too about the pecking order of Mr. Trump’s Washington that his son Eric Trump and daughter-in-law Lara Trump were given seats in the front row along with the president and vice president, while the secretaries of state and defense, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth, were relegated to the second row.
Also on hand was Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, whose confirmation to the Supreme Court was secured in part by Mr. Graham who became his most passionate defender during Senate hearings in 2018 when the nominee was accused of sexually assaulting a fellow student during high school.
Mr. Trump used the occasion to share stories, including the time he and Mr. Graham ran against each other in 2016 for the Republican presidential nomination. At one point, in an act of revenge for some harsh things Mr. Graham had said, Mr. Trump gave the senator’s personal mobile phone number out publicly.
“His phone totally — I don’t know what he did with it, but it exploded,” Mr. Trump recalled. “That was the beginning of a friendship, in a way. But it was Lindsey who had the last laugh because, while I blew up his phone, oh, for one day, we became great friends, and Lindsey did not stop calling me for the next 10 years.”
Robert Jimison and Chris Cameron contributed reporting.
