The Senator from the US state of South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, probably got into the depths of German politics more by accident and probably unintentionally. Together with the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz, he should sit on the podium in the state representation of Baden-Württemberg at the end of the month. The Berlin embassy of a large federal state? The leader of the Christian Democrats? check, check That couldn’t be wrong. If there weren’t other participants registered: above all the lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel, who represented the AfD in civil proceedings. The whole event smelled too much of camaraderie with the right – apparently why CDU boss Merz canceled his participation.
But anyone who would have believed that Graham would follow Merz’s example knows little about this headstrong Southern politician. Publicly teasing against the goad always gives him recognizable pleasure – a quality that he shares with the CDU chairman. And so Graham let him know that if Merz didn’t want to sit on a podium with him, there was no need to meet up during his upcoming visit to Germany. If so, then yes.
It would be an understatement to describe Lindsey Graham as one of the most agile of the senators currently representing the Republicans in Washington. In 2002, the lawyer, whose southern-drawl exudes joviality and composure, was elected for the first time, at that time as the protégé and successor of the arch-reactionary racist Strom Thurmond. But Graham quickly emancipated himself politically. He worked with the Liberal Edward Kennedy on immigration reform, he was open to proposals for emissions trading and limits on party donations.
The President’s golf buddy
Two friendships have shaped the career of the now 68-year-old. And they also provide information about a remarkable flexibility that would have meant the end of their political careers for others long ago. In Washington, Graham quickly developed a kind of kinship with his (now deceased) Senate colleague John McCain. Both had served in the army for a long time, Graham as a military prosecutor (including four years at the Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt between 1984 and 1988). Both were unabashed transatlanticists, both warned against the isolationists in their party who are calling for a reduction in US military commitments worldwide – and they displayed a deep dislike for the vulgar right-wing populists that have been growing stronger among Republicans since the late 2000s . Graham had nothing but contempt for the man who best capitalized on this trend during the 2016 presidential campaign, publicly calling him a “complete idiot” unable to hold the office he aspired to: Donald Trump.
It was all the more astonishing that Graham became one of the future President’s most ardent advocates in the Senate – and his regular golf buddy. Graham gave a pragmatic justification for his apparent change of heart: “If we undermine the president’s authority, it will be the end of his presidency – and the end of our party.”
And so he remained loyal to him until the end, long after it became clear that he had been right in his original assessment of the man. After the lost election, Graham was one of Trump’s followers who knitted the legend of the stolen election victory. He even called the Georgia Secretary of the Interior to see if a few absentee ballots could be invalidated and salvage Trump’s victory. A call that would have ended other politicians’ careers long ago.