Since 2017, there have been rumours, insinuations and conspiracy theories surrounding the bizarre relationship between Trump and Lindsey Graham. The most popular of the various beliefs is that Trump was blackmailing Graham. That, of course, launched another wave of rumours, insinuations and conspiracy theories about what shocking secret had caused Graham to fall victim to blackmail.
Occasionally, this blackmail idea expands to include many, if not most, Republicans in both houses of Congress, in an effort to explain why most, if not all, of them toed the Trump line from the beginning. But if, say, fifty of them were/are being extorted by Trump, it seems unlikely that it would be for fifty different reasons. The most practical suggestion would be that they were all in the same legal jeopardy. And that is possible, but if that were the case, Graham was not part of it. Unlike most of the Congressional GOP, he did not immediately fall into line at the beginning of Trump’s first regime. It was 8 months before Graham switched from harsh critic to dutiful servant.
Recently, a different viewpoint emerged. Based on the idea that Lindsey had probably protected himself from bullies at school by allying himself with the strongest person he could find, proponents of this idea point to his close friendship with John McCain before he transferred his allegiance to Trump as his new ‘strong man’. There’s no denying that McCain, their presidential nominee in 2008, was a highly respected leader in the national Republican Party. Nor does anyone dispute that Trump has been the party’s leader since winning the presidential primary in 2016. But where this particular belief falls apart is that John McCain was still alive and remained Graham’s closest friend when the latter’s followship of Trump began in 2017. John McCain passed away almost eleven months later on August 25, 2018.
Then there’s a third perspective. To understand this one, we need to turn back the clock to certain defining moments in Lindsey’s life. In 1974, according to The Guardian’s Lindsey Graham’s Obituary,
He became the first member of his family to attend college, with a military ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) scholarship to the University of South Carolina.
Shortly after his family took their first flight together, heading to Disney World in Orlando on a family vacation, his mother was diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She had six months to live.
At the end, things were grim.
“I’m sorry, she’s gone,” the doctor told Graham and his family. His sister fainted. He rushed to his mother’s side, grabbed her in his arms and “pleaded with her to come to us. And she did. She revived.”
His mother lived only another week. “She talked about heaven and told me, Lindsey, let me go.”
As she was battling her own disease, Graham’s father was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Lindsey and his sister would trek to two hospitals to take care of his dying parents. Fifteen months after their mother died, 13-year-old Darline found their father dead of a massive heart attack.
Wikipedia sourced the following from The Atlantic:
Because his sister, then 13 years old, was left orphaned, the service allowed Graham to attend the University of South Carolina in Columbia so he could remain near home as his sister’s legal guardian.
Although multiple sources agree that Lindsey was Darline’s legal guardian, and the definition of “legal guardian” is a guardian appointed by the Court, only my memory recalls Lindsey going to Court to secure guardianship of his orphaned sister. He was just 22 at the time.
As young as he was and still a student, Graham devoted himself to Darline’s care, even enforcing curfews and ensuring she was with the right crowd in school. After earning his JD law degree, he enlisted as a lieutenant in the JAG Corps of the US Air Force, as a military defence attorney in 1982 so that Darline could receive his benefits.
In contrast, Trump’s defining experience was very different. As the second son, he wasn’t expected to inherit his father’s company and accumulated wealth, but heedless Fate stepped in when his elder brother died aged 42 in 1981. Donald’s ambitious self-interest prodded him to become ingratiating with his father as he learned all he could about becoming a real estate mogul.
Fred Trump’s primary real estate firm (Elizabeth Trump & Son) worked with William Tomasello, a brick contractor and associate of both the Genovese and Gambino crime families. Tomasello was an investor and provided crucial capital and labor dispute resolution on major projects.
On New.com.au’s Page 6, Richard Johnson also notes that the elder Trump sought the advice of Jimmy Napoli, a prominent mob boss in the Gambino family, to help navigate New York real estate and to seek counsel before his son Donald entered the Atlantic City casino industry.
McCain was Graham’s mentor, and the two had developed a deep friendship. For most of us watching, I think it felt like Lindsey was following John’s lead. He was ‘nice’ to Trump when politics dictated it, but he’s never changed his mind about him. He didn’t take down that tweet on Twitter:
Then everything suddenly changed for Lindsey Graham on October 9, 2017. It was Columbus Day and Lindsey Graham was summoned to the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, to play a round with the President. Why did this raise a red flag?
Apparently, the summons was a last-minute arrangement. Lindsey liked to spend holidays with his sister Darline, her husband and their children. But instead he found himself in Virginia? It doesn’t take much mental effort to discern that Sterling is not where Lindsey wanted to be that day. Yet some amount of pressure had been exerted to make sure he was there.
The pressure wouldn’t have come directly from Trump himself. As noted earlier, Trump liked others to do the work, especially dirty work. Though turning up at the golf course that morning would’ve been Trump’s idea, as a sign of capitulation, and Trump planned to rub salt in the wound by beating him at golf as well.
Though a few of us recorded this as the date when Lindsey Graham changed from rebel to sycophant, it was more likely the night before, out of public view. We talked about it for a long time as we watched Lindsey’s character recede and toadiness take its place. One Behavioural Psychologist described Lindsey as exhibiting the signs you’d expect to see in a hostage victim.
We didn’t believe the blackmail rumours that quickly circulated. Trump would’ve started with that, most likely trying the gay angle first, probably arranging to have male prostitutes turn up at Graham’s house. Trump isn’t noted for subtlety, and any such sledgehammer efforts obviously didn’t work. We can only guess at what else he tried before giving up the blackmail idea.
Trump may have been advised to forget, but he’s too vindictive to let it go. The more time that went by, the more the narcissistic sadist in him would’ve wanted to hurt Lindsey. At some point, he may have thought to ask one of his mobster business associates what they would do to force compliance. When you can’t find anything nefarious on someone, you find out who he loves most.
Darline was loved and cherished by Lindsey Graham her entire life. She refers to him as her brother, mother and father all rolled into one. She is his family; her husband and children are his family. Sacrificing his dignity and reputation to protect them was always his first and most important directive in life.
I’ve often wondered if McCain knew. I think he did. No one could miss Graham’s change of opinion in public, and I feel sure the friends still shared the same opinion of Trump in private. After John McCain died, Lindsey was truly alone with his burden.
I remember once showing the Behavioural Psychologist a video of a Senate hearing in which Lindsey read aloud strident criticisms of Trump; raising his voice and stabbing his finger in the air for emphasis. The psychologist responded that, although Lindsey was pretending to act, he wasn’t acting. He really loathed Trump.
The FBI is assisting local authorities and has made every necessary resource available.
There were no suspicious circumstances surrounding Graham’s death, yet Patel had FBI agents thoroughly check Lindsey’s DC home. I wonder if there were also covert searches conducted at Graham’s South Carolina home and his DC office?
Trump claimed that he thought Patel was “wasting his time,” but that’s more likely to be code for “if anything that incriminates Trump is found, it will be destroyed.”
It’s still accessible on X-formerly-known-as-Twitter. Lindsey never did delete it because he never stopped believing it.
I hope Lindsey Graham recorded conversations and wrote down exactly what happened, then hid it where Trump can’t find it before it can be revealed publicly. It would be a very fitting revenge if Lindsey Graham found some way to bring down Trump after his death.
Very intriguing possibility. I hope you are right.