President Donald Trump is famous for his dishonesty and repeated falsehoods, critics contend, so it was quite a surprise when Trump went off script while delivering a eulogy for South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, telling the truth and even apologizing for it.
Before some of the world’s most powerful people at Graham’s funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington Tuesday, Trump talked about the four-term senator’s life, calling him a “true American original” and a “beloved friend,” according to CBS News.
But then something odd happened. Trump disagreed with his speechwriter.
“Virtually every Republican and Democrat in Washington liked Lindsey,” Trump said before stopping and musing, “Well, not everyone, but it sounds good.”
“Not everybody,” he repeated.
“He was a tough cookie. OK, I have to be; I have to veer from this for a second,” Trump said, referring to the teleprompter script and specifically refusing to say the word “honest.”
“He was a tough cookie, Darline,” Trump repeated, speaking directly to Graham’s sister Darline Graham Nordone, who stepped in to finish the rest of her brother’s term after his sudden death on July 11 from an aortic dissection.
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Trump endorsed Graham Nordone, Lindsey Graham’s younger sister, and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster complied, making Nordone the first woman to serve as a U.S. senator from South Carolina.
Social media didn’t hold back in its criticism of Trump over his comments at his friend’s funeral.
“The worst public speaker I’ve ever heard. He simply can’t read a paragraph coherently,” a Threads user complained. Another declared, “Zero class.”
This poster pointed out, “The Family should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this sh-t show.” Still another commented, “Tactless, Trashy.”
Graham, known for his hawkish foreign policy views, visited Ukraine the day before he died.
After Graham returned on July 11, emergency officials responded to a report of cardiac arrest at his Washington home, NBC News reported. Responders performed CPR on the 71-year-old.
His office confirmed his death the next morning.
A close personal friend and ally of Trump, Graham, who was first elected to the Senate in 2002 and planned to run for a fifth six-year term in November, was the chair of the Senate Budget Committee and an important voice in the Republican Party on foreign policy and defense, according to NBC.
Reports also indicated Graham appeared to be feeling fine shortly before suffering the aortic dissection.
University of Michigan Health defines the condition as a life-threatening medical emergency where a tear in the inner layer of the aorta, the largest main artery in the body, allows blood to force between the layers of the artery wall, causing them to split and separate.
A who’s who of powerful people attended his funeral, including U.S. lawmakers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Graham will be buried in South Carolina in a private funeral Wednesday, in his hometown of Pickens at Mt. Zion Cemetery.
