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Lindsey Graham Fears His Own Ides of March - And Thus He’s All In On Trump

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In the blood sport of Washington politics, where allegiances shift like sand and principles dissolve faster than sugar in rain, few conversions have been as spectacularly complete—or as mysteriously sudden—as Lindsey Graham's transformation from Donald Trump's most savage critic to his most slavish devotee. The metamorphosis was so swift, so absolute, that you could practically set your watch by it: March 2017, after a private tête-à-tête with the newly installed president.

The Ferocity of Graham's Opposition

To appreciate the complex audacity of Graham's about-face, you must first understand the white-hot intensity of his pre-2017 loathing for Trump. This wasn't your garden-variety political opposition—it was character assassination delivered with the precision of a master prosecutor. "You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell," Graham snarled on CNN in December 2015, his voice dripping with contempt. But Graham was just warming up. In the same breath, he delivered what may stand as the most devastating political obituary in modern American history: "He's a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn't represent my party. He doesn't represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for. He's the ISIL man of the year."

Graham's revulsion was existential, almost spiritual in its intensity. He saw Trump as nothing less than a threat to the Republican Party's soul, tweeting with prophetic certainty, "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed, and we will deserve it." His predictions were positively apocalyptic: "I believe Donald Trump would be an absolute, utter disaster for the Republican Party, destroy conservatism as we know it. We'd get wiped out, and it would take generations to overcome a Trump candidacy."

Graham didn't mince words about Trump's fitness for office, calling him "uninformed" and declaring with the solemnity of a judge pronouncing sentence, "I cannot in good conscience support Donald Trump because I do not believe he is a reliable Republican conservative nor has he displayed the judgment and temperament to serve as Commander in Chief." Perhaps most tellingly, Graham stated with what seemed like unshakeable conviction in May 2016: "I'd rather lose without Donald Trump than try to win with him. I wish he would leave the party."

Trump's Pattern of Intimidation

The transformation defied all political logic, but it becomes considerably more comprehensible when viewed through the lens of Trump's well-documented history of using threats, blackmail, and coercion to secure loyalty. Trump's approach operates like a Mafia don's playbook, combining carrots and very sharp sticks.

His Ukraine scandal provided the most prominent example of his willingness to leverage the full power of the United States government for personal political gain. In that infamous July 25, 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump dangled $400 million in military aid like a mob boss offering protection, telling Zelensky, "I would like you to do us a favor though..." before demanding investigations that would benefit him politically.

This willingness to weaponize government power extends throughout Trump's approach to domestic politics. He has systematically targeted FBI officials who investigated him, repeatedly threatening former officials with prosecution. He continues to threaten Andrew McCabe, with his attack dog Steve Bannon growling on his podcast that McCabe "should be worried," adding with characteristic menace, "we have extradition treaties with virtually every country in the world... We're going to come and get you." Trump reposted Bannon's threats on Truth Social, ensuring maximum intimidation value.

The New York Times reported that Trump "told the White House counsel in the spring that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute" both Hillary Clinton and James Comey. A CREW analysis found that Trump issued direct or implied threats on Truth Social to use federal government powers against Joe Biden twenty-five times, threatening him with "FBI raids, investigations, indictments and even jail time." NPR's review identified Trump targeting over one hundred perceived enemies across seven major groups.

Graham's Formative Years and Vulnerabilities

To understand Graham's susceptibility to whatever dark arts were employed in that fateful meeting, you must first appreciate the peculiar cocktail of circumstances that shaped his early life. Born on July 9, 1955, in Central, South Carolina, Lindsey Olin Graham grew up in a world where his Scots-Irish family operated the Sanitary Cafe, a combination restaurant, bar, pool hall, and liquor store that served as the social nexus of their small town. From age twelve, young Lindsey worked in the establishment, racking pool tables and helping support the family business—what he would later call his "pool room education."

Graham's world shattered during his college years when both parents died within fifteen months of each other, his mother Millie succumbing to Hodgkin's lymphoma when Graham was twenty-one, followed by his father's heart attack when Graham was twenty-two. This left him as sole guardian of his thirteen-year-old sister, Darline, a responsibility that would forever alter his understanding of duty, sacrifice, and the terrible burden of protecting those you love.

Despite these crushing challenges, Graham became the first in his family to attend college, earning his psychology degree from the University of South Carolina in 1977 and his law degree in 1981. Throughout law school, he returned home weekends via Greyhound bus to work in the family store and care for his sister, balancing studies, business, and guardianship with remarkable determination.

Graham's military service began in 1982 with his commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps. His thirty-three-year military career included a significant early triumph in 1984 while serving as a defense attorney. Defending an Air Force pilot accused of marijuana use, Graham uncovered systematic flaws in Air Force drug testing procedures that led to wrongful dismissals. His investigation gained national attention when featured on CBS's "60 Minutes," earning him the Air Force Commendation Medal.