Escalation: Trump Uses Graham's Death for Political Gain
On July 14, 2026, Raw Story reported that Donald Trump invoked the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham to advance his own purposes, drawing a visible wince from a MAGA-aligned senator.
The same Raw Story report said Graham, a South Carolina Republican, spent his final days pressing for stricter U.S. sanctions on Russia.
In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster holds the authority to appoint an interim U.S. senator to fill a vacancy; Graham’s Class II seat is already scheduled to be on the November 2026 ballot.
In separate coverage the same day, Raw Story highlighted broader turbulence around Trump and GOP leadership, noting Wall Street traders’ dark humor over a renewed Strait of Hormuz crisis tied to his foreign policy and quoting Jon Stewart telling Mitch McConnell on The Daily Show, “We’re fine!”
Raw Story also published an unrelated email-chain exposé about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein on July 14, which did not address Graham’s death or South Carolina’s succession process.
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