Ukraine had few, if any, friends in Washington more devoted than Senator Lindsey Graham, who visited Kyiv at the end of last week. His sudden death over the weekend left the Ukrainian leadership wondering who might fill the role he played: someone who had the rare ability to talk tough with Volodymyr Zelensky, to reason with Donald Trump, and to show both presidents how their interests could align.

Senator Lindsey Graham, who died unexpectedly last night, was a pivotal citizen of the Washington conversation. He loved being in the mix, slapping bipartisan backs off camera, and then, when the lights came on, cracking wise, weighing in, and, yes, currying favor with a certain Audience of One.
What could be more fitting, then, for Graham—unable to be a participant on this fateful Sunday morning—to actually become the only thing better: the main topic of the news. He died as he lived.

Lindsey Graham had just returned from a trip to Ukraine last night when he called President Trump to talk with him—about the trip, about one of the president’s key legislative priorities, about the days ahead. The two spoke often on their cellphones, a reminder of how their relationship had warmed in the decade since Trump, in a fit of pique after Graham called him a “jackass,” read the South Carolina senator’s personal cellphone number aloud at a campaign event.

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In his way, the late Lindsey Graham, who unexpectedly died Saturday evening, was the consummate politician of our time. The Republican senator from South Carolina was the epitome, the poster child, the quintessence of our era.

Watchless, wordless, compassless.
Isn’t that when mountains open
and light roars through,
as when in the delivery room,
slammed by a lot of meaningless
brightness, you cried and were held and forgot?
In your nursery, did you reach for the moon?
Many babies do. Moon, your mother said,
and soon enough you were grown.
This poem appears in the August 2026 print edition.