WASHINGTON: Senator Lindsey Graham, an influential ally of President Donald Trump and advocate of hawkish US foreign policy, has died unexpectedly aged 71, his office said on Sunday.

Graham was a staunch supporter of the Iran war, and in recent years urged both Trump and the Biden administrations to back Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

He bitterly opposed Trump a decade ago, but came around to support him.

Graham did so even after the 2021 Capitol insurrection in which lawmakers feared for their lives as a pro-Trump mob ran amok at the seat of US democracy.

The Republican senator from South Carolina’s office said in a statement on his official X account that he “passed away from a brief and sudden illness” on Saturday evening.

NBC News reported that emergency services respo­nded to a call for cardiac arrest at Graham’s Capitol Hill home on Saturday night, according to police scanner audio obtained by NBC and other outlets.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2026