Trump praises ‘American Patriot’ Sen. Lindsey Graham after longtime politician dies at 71

"Is dead!" With an exclamation point. Only Donald Trump could turn a death notice into something that sounds like breaking news from his own mouth, and somehow it still landed as sincere. Whatever you think of the punctuation, the sentiment tracked. Lindsey Graham spent the better part of two decades as one of the most argued-over men in Washington, and by the end of it he'd become one of Trump's most reliable allies on Capitol Hill, for better or worse.

That relationship was never simple, and that's worth remembering instead of flattening into a eulogy. Graham spent the Bush years as a hawk's hawk, then spent the Obama years cutting deals that made his own base furious, then spent 2016 calling Trump every name in the book before becoming one of his most visible defenders in the Senate. People change their minds about Trump in both directions all the time. Graham did it in reverse and never really apologized for either version of himself.

What actually stood out about Graham, love him or not, was that he showed up. Judiciary Committee hearings, Sunday shows, overseas trips with McCain, the impeachment fights, the Supreme Court battles. He was in the arena more than almost anyone else in that building, and he took real heat for it from every direction. That's a rarer thing in the Senate than people give credit for.

Trump calling him a patriot isn't spin. It's the kind of thing you say about someone who picked a side and stuck with it once the fight got hard, even if it took him a while to get there.