A phone-in memorial for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham spiraled into nearly six minutes of rambling that left the hosts of “Fox & Friends” visibly struggling to wrangle President Donald Trump back to the topic at hand on Monday morning, July 13. What was meant to be a remembrance of the South Carolina Republican who died Saturday, July 11, at age 71 from aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease instead became a wide-ranging presidential monologue touching on voter ID laws, Los Angeles politics, and election fraud allegations.
A Tribute That Quickly Unraveled
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt opened the segment Monday by offering condolences to Trump, 80, for losing one of his closest friends and a Senate ally, then asked how he was feeling. Trump initially described Graham as a “great guy” and a “friend” who “loved golf,” joking that he would tell the senator to stop calling him and labeling him a “total workaholic politician,” adding that “some people don’t call that work, some people call that a lot of talking.”
After briefly noting Graham’s support for his voter ID measure, the SAVE Act, Trump pivoted to complaints about Democrats and what he termed “Trump derangement syndrome.” He then launched into topics including abolishing the filibuster, reality TV personality Spencer Pratt’s unsuccessful Los Angeles mayoral campaign, California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, and mail-in ballot security, at one point asserting that “these elections are very dishonest.”
Hosts Struggle to Regain Control
As the president spoke, the broadcast aired a montage of Graham photographs that Trump talked straight through. Once the montage ended, the screen simply showed a photo of Trump with text identifying him as the 47th president of the United States.
At three separate points, the hosts attempted to steer Trump back to Graham, only to be overridden. Co-host Lawrence Jones asked repeatedly whether Trump had noticed anything unusual during their most recent phone call—Trump had mentioned earlier that Graham phoned him after his Ukraine trip on July 8. Jones could be heard muttering “Oh, hmm” as the president continued. He grew more forceful, repeating “Mr. President, Mr. President” while Trump pressed on about eliminating the filibuster, which he called the single smartest thing that could be done. On the fourth attempt, co-host Griff Jenkins finally succeeded in redirecting the conversation.
Once refocused on Graham, Trump brought up past tensions between the two men, including the senator’s public break with him following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. Trump gave Graham a friendship score of 99 out of 100 because of that disagreement. Graham had declared at the time that he was counting himself out and that enough was enough. Trump claimed Graham called back roughly 40 minutes later to say he had experienced a change of heart. The president also insisted he had nothing to do with the events of that day.
On Graham’s golf abilities, Trump offered a backhanded assessment. He said the senator loved playing and being outside but acknowledged Graham “wasn’t a great striker of the ball” and was neither Jack Nicklaus nor Tiger Woods. Still, Trump maintained Graham had fun with politics and was good at it.
Late-Night Hosts Weigh In
The chaotic call drew immediate attention from late-night television. On “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart replayed Trump’s line about always letting Graham go to voicemail and said the president had “zoomed through the first five stages of grief” before landing on a sixth stage unique to him. Stewart also highlighted Trump’s remarks about Graham’s golf game and his characterization of the senator as a workaholic who did a lot of talking. “Late Night” host Seth Meyers and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” guest host Ike Barinholtz similarly dissected Trump’s comments, extending the segment’s reach far beyond the morning show.
The “Fox & Friends” appearance was not Trump’s only public remembrance of Graham that week. On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on July 12, he revealed that he had spoken with Graham on Saturday night, hours before the senator died, saying that “other than being tired, he was fine” and reflecting that it had been a “quick end, and maybe that’s not the worst way to go.” In a July 13 phone interview with Newsmax, he provided a more clinical account, relaying that doctors had told him “a certain part of his body literally blew up,” then adding, “I wish he took better care of himself.” He also dismissed the prospect of an FBI inquiry into the death as a waste of the bureau’s time. Taken together, the remarks amounted to a remembrance delivered in Trump’s own idiom—part affection, part appraisal, with the appraisal often winning out.
For all its detours, the call captured a familiar dynamic: a presidential appearance that began as a solemn remembrance and quickly became something else entirely, with the hosts left waiting for an opening that took several tries to arrive.
