Senator Lindsey Graham, the Trump opponent turned outspoken ally who died at 71 this month, will be honored with two days of funeral services this week.
Congressional leaders will have a ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday, and a funeral service will be held at Washington National Cathedral later in the afternoon. On Wednesday, he will be remembered in his home state, South Carolina.
Here’s what to know:
What’s happening
Elected leaders and other public figures will attend closed ceremonies at the Capitol and Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday, before a procession and public funeral in South Carolina on the next day.
Mr. Graham’s coffin will arrive at the Capitol for a short ceremony paying tribute to his decades of service as a senator. It will be carried by military service members and a memorial guard from the Capitol Police, symbolizing his service in both the Air Force and Congress. The ceremony, which will begin at 10 a.m., will be closed to the public but can be watched via livestream.
Later in the afternoon, Mr. Graham’s coffin will be moved to Washington National Cathedral for a closed funeral service at 2 p.m. President Trump will attend, as well as world leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
Mr. Trump will lead the tributes to Mr. Graham at the cathedral, according to a program released on Monday. That will be followed by remarks from Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, and readings by the Rev. Franklin Graham, the evangelical minister; Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council; and Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
After the funeral, which will be livestreamed, Mr. Graham’s body will be flown to South Carolina. On Wednesday, his coffin will be carried in a final procession from the South Carolina State House to the First Baptist Church of Columbia. A public funeral service will begin at noon.
What people have said
Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader, described Mr. Graham as a “staunch conservative and a fierce advocate for South Carolina” in a tearful address on the Senate floor shortly after he died.
“The halls of the Senate already feel empty without him,” Mr. Thune said. “And I know I’m not alone in that feeling.”
In remarks since Mr. Graham’s death, Mr. Trump has praised the senator as “one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known,” adding that he was “a natural — very few of them,” and that “he got along with everybody.”
Shortly before departing on Monday for the funeral in Washington, Mr. Netanyahu lauded Mr. Graham as “one of the greatest friends the State of Israel has ever known.”
Mr. Zelensky, who had met with Mr. Graham in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, days before his death, said in a statement that he was “deeply saddened” by the senator’s loss and highlighted his strong support for Ukraine during the war with Russia. Mr. Graham was “a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer,” Mr. Zelensky said.
What is Graham’s record?
A former Air Force lawyer, Mr. Graham was first elected to the House in 1994, before winning his Senate seat in 2002. In Congress, Mr. Graham consistently argued for the use of American military power overseas. He was a fierce supporter of Israel and Ukraine, making multiple trips to both countries, and was one of the most prominent supporters of the war with Iran.
Mr. Graham, who made his own long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, was once a spirited critic of Mr. Trump, denouncing him during the race as a “demagogue” and a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.”
But Mr. Graham quickly turned into an ally of the president after he took office, becoming one of Mr. Trump’s closest Senate confidants by 2018. With his proximity to the president, Mr. Graham’s influence grew: He rose to lead two influential committees, Judiciary (from 2019 to 2021) and Budget (starting in January 2025).
As a senator who focused much of his efforts on foreign policy, Mr. Graham became a familiar face for many world diplomats and leaders, and helped navigate Ukraine’s often strained relations with the Trump administration after Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Peter Baker and Robert Jimison contributed reporting.
