(CNN) — It was Lindsey Graham’s last political act: bringing leaders of two of his great causes, Israel and Ukraine, back before President Donald Trump.
Like many Washington funerals, the senator’s on Tuesday was as much about the living — and their immortal game of politics — as the dead.
It underscored the late son of South Carolina’s role as a great convener. But a day of high-stakes diplomacy on the sidelines of the ceremony also reflected a fundamental truth: Trump is the center of gravity.
Graham wielded influence by appearing at the sides of those who held far greater power. His metamorphic style meant he could simultaneously advocate neoconservative interventionism while serving as an “America First” whisperer. Trump hinted at the contradiction in his eulogy from the pulpit at Washington National Cathedral: “He never saw a war he didn’t like.”
But Graham’s insistence on always being in the arena and willingness to talk to anyone meant — like his late mentor Sen. John McCain — he could create bridges where others couldn’t.
His irrepressible character and willingness to defend Trump when many wouldn’t bought Graham’s entry into the president’s inner circle. They also meant he could press the president on issues where they deeply disagreed, such as on support for Ukraine.
Graham positioned himself as a conduit between Republican senators and Trump, and between Republicans and Democrats. Since he had the president’s ear, every foreign door was open to him.
“For more than 30 years, nothing of consequence happened in this capital without Lindsey Graham knowing about it,” Trump said. “Nothing of significance happened anywhere in the world without Lindsey Graham having a view on it.”
As Graham’s casket lay in the nave of Washington’s National Cathedral on Tuesday, his bipartisan friends in the Senate gave his legacy an important boost by announcing a bill giving Trump power to impose more sanctions on Russia.
A man who could make things happen
Graham’s service was the last Washington dance of a political fixer who, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, was not meant to be Prince Hamlet but “an attendant lord” who could “swell a progress, start a scene or two.”
Making that scene on Tuesday were Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on one of those days when the world and Washington converge.
Netanyahu and Zelensky share an ability to surf the tempestuous seas of the capital’s politics. They can be sent home with a flea in their ear. But sooner or later, they will be back. (Graham was often the glue — he was important in rehabilitating the Ukrainian leader with Trump following his disastrous Oval Office photo-op last year.)
The pair came to Washington Tuesday on contradictory missions: Zelensky is desperate for Trump’s help in ending a war. Netanyahu wants the president to restart one.
And the two men also played out an odd case of role reversal.
Zelensky rode a tide of positive press — partly precipitated by an extraordinary conversion to Ukraine’s cause by MAGA influencer and Trump confidant Laura Loomer, who declared after visiting Kyiv that she’d been “bamboozled” by Russian propaganda.
Reports suggested that Trump — who loves a winner — has noticed Zelensky’s success in taking the fight to Russia with homemade weapons that revolutionized warfare. Trump had good reason to listen, since he’s effectively in the same position as his friend Russian President Vladimir Putin: locked in a messy war with a smaller foe armed with drones that have neutralized the conventional advantages of a far greater military power.
If Zelensky was feted, Netanyahu was, unusually for a period of GOP power in Washington, something of an unwelcome guest. The president limbered up for their encounter in the Oval Office by delivering a harsh rebuke on Fox News that will further convince some MAGA personalities that the Israeli prime minister coaxed him into an unwise war. Trump was asked about reports that Netanyahu would bring new intelligence about Iranian nuclear activity. “Bibi’s telling me that because he wants me to stay involved,” Trump replied. “I heard Bibi announce that. I said, ‘Why don’t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world?’”
Many smiles, fewer results
Graham’s two friends didn’t really get all of what they wanted — at least publicly.
Neither merited the political gold dust of a televised appearance alongside Trump. Perhaps White House officials worried about the impact of any signs of discord in either meeting. Maybe time was a factor ahead of Graham’s service.
But Zelensky would have relished a conciliatory moment after a rough political stretch that saw him fire his defense minister and that would also have offered a morale boost to Ukrainian civilians under Russian fire.
Netanyahu declared in a video released by his office that his conversation with Trump was “one of the best” they’ve ever had. But there was no campaign-ad-ready footage of talks that would have bolstered his case to be the indispensable link with Trump ahead of an Israeli general election later this year.
The twin meetings reflected a truth about American foreign policy that Graham understood but couldn’t overcome: The main driver of US action is now Trump’s volatile personality — not a conventional view of national interests. Anything can happen at any moment. For instance, even as Trump criticized Netanyahu for trying to drag him back into the war, Trump told Fox he would “take out” Iran’s bridges in less than an hour if it didn’t do a deal.
Zelensky said on X that he’d discussed with Trump how Ukraine could get licenses to manufacture US Patriot anti-missile interceptors and “some other ideas that could help.” Trump’s apparent openness to permit such licensing caused an optimistic stir during a recent trip to Europe — but it may have been a mirage.
“The problem with licensing is that it’s not going to address the time urgency of this problem for Ukraine,” former CIA Russia analyst George Beebe said in a Quincy Institute Briefing. “That will take probably years before it really churns out interceptor missiles in the numbers that the Ukrainians need to cope with the Russian threat.”
There’s little urgency in the White House to do more. Trump on Monday complained that the Biden administration sent too much hardware to Ukraine as he dodged reports the Iran war had depleted US munitions. And while Graham was a key influence on Trump when it came to Ukraine, there’s been a greater one: Putin, in his regular phone calls with the president.
No one knows what Trump will do next. But history suggests he’s most likely eventually to try to cut his losses in Iran and to decline to meaningfully arm Ukraine.
That leaves Graham’s legacy in the fickle grasp of the president, friend and golfing partner who eulogized him as “a giant of the United States Senate” but still may not take his advice.
The-CNN-Wire
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