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Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, has died at the age of 71.<\/b><\/p>\n
His office released a statement saying he died on Saturday evening following “a brief and sudden illness”, adding that Graham’s family had asked for “privacy during this incredibly difficult period”. <\/p>\n
Elected to the Senate in 2002, the South Carolina politician was one of Washington’s most influential voices on foreign policy. <\/p>\n
He had just returned from Kyiv, where he met the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday. There were no known health concerns ahead of his trip.<\/p>\n
In a social media post marking the senator’s death, US President Donald Trump said Graham was a “true American Patriot”.<\/p>\n
Graham also served as Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.<\/p>\n
He was a strong proponent of US support for Ukraine. In his most recent trip to the country, Graham was working on a version of the Russia sanctions bill, which he said would give “tools to President Trump to end this war”.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was “deeply saddened” by the news of the senator’s death.<\/p>\n
In a post on his official X account, external<\/span><\/a>, Zelenskyy said Graham had visited the country 10 times since Russia’s full-scale invasion and was “with our people when it was most needed”.<\/p>\n “America and the world have lost a determined leader”, he added.<\/p>\n Graham initially clashed with the US president. <\/p>\n He told CNN in 2015 that Trump was “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot”, and during the 2016 campaign he posted on social media: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed… and we will deserve it.”<\/p>\n After the US Capitol riots in 2021, Graham gave a speech on the Senate floor in which he said: “Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way.<\/p>\n “All I can say is a count me out. Enough is enough.”<\/p>\n But he later became one of his staunchest backers. He voted against convicting Trump in the 2021 impeachment trial, <\/b>and supported Trump in the 2024 election. <\/p>\n