Graham Funeral: Trump Speaks, Casket Heads Home
Trump, Vance and Thune delivered eulogies for Lindsey Graham at Washington National Cathedral, and on Wednesday the casket returns to South Carolina for services in Columbia and Pickens County.
- Lindsey Graham's funeral was held on Tuesday, July 28, at Washington National Cathedral, with entry by invitation only.
- Eulogies came from President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Fox News host Sean Hannity, Graham's niece Emillie Boggs Roberts and South Carolina Rep. Sheri Briggs.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attended both ceremonies.
- On Wednesday, July 29, the casket returns to South Carolina for services in Columbia and Pickens County.
The funeral of Lindsey Graham put two foreign leaders Belgrade watches more closely than American domestic politics into the same pews on Tuesday: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who arrived with Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. The Republican senator from South Carolina died on July 11 at the age of 71, and the day set aside to bury him ended up gathering, around one casket, both of the wars Washington had spent that week negotiating over.
The morning belonged to the Capitol. The ceremony in the Rotunda was closed to the public but carried live, and Graham’s sister Darline Graham Nordone, who has since become a senator herself, paid her respects over her brother’s casket. The cathedral service followed in the afternoon, open only to invited guests.
Who spoke at the service?
Six speakers took the lectern, drawn from different parts of Graham’s life:
- President Donald Trump
- Vice President JD Vance
- Senate Majority Leader John Thune
- Fox News host Sean Hannity
- Graham’s niece Emillie Boggs Roberts
- South Carolina Rep. Sheri Briggs
The readings were given by Rev. Franklin Graham and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Trump reached for a single image to describe the senator:
“He was a man who gave America the full measure of his good and mighty heart, until that heart simply gave out.”
Vance framed his tribute around how Graham treated the people he disagreed with:
“I choose to remember Lindsey Graham as a person who could fight with you on one issue, but fight for you on another.”
Thune kept his goodbye short: “To Lindsey, rest in peace, my friend. I look forward to the days when you make us all laugh again.” Hannity said that “at his core, Lindsey was a man guided by one principle: God, family, country.” His niece spoke for the family: “He was the foundation of our family.”
Who filled the cathedral
The guest list is what sets this send-off apart from standard Senate protocol. Alongside Netanyahu and Zelensky, the cathedral held Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. From the Senate came Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Marsha Blackburn, on top of the Republican leadership. Eric and Lara Trump attended, as did Rev. Franklin Graham.
We reported yesterday on how Washington ran two tracks the same day: Trump received Netanyahu and Zelensky separately at the White House, one meeting on the war with Iran, the other on the peace process with Russia. The same two men greeted each other in a church pew a few hours later, an image that says more about the order of American priorities than any readout.
What happens in South Carolina
On Wednesday, July 29, the casket returns to the state Graham represented in the Senate. Two services are scheduled, in the capital Columbia and in Pickens County.
His name also stays in official use: Joint Base Charleston is to be renamed Joint Base Lindsey Graham. That renaming is the only permanent mark of this week that is not measured in speeches, and it means the largest military installation in South Carolina will carry the name of its senator.
