U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Republican from South Carolina and one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies, dies at age 71. Multiple outlets report that his death follows a sudden illness, with NDTV citing a preliminary report from the Washington, D.C., medical examiner that described a tear in the aorta. Bloomberg also notes his long-running influence on U.S. foreign policy and the Republican Party. Across the coverage, Graham is consistently described as a hawkish, defense- and foreign-policy-focused senator whose positions helped shape U.S. policy debates for years. Several sources highlight his political shift after initially criticizing Trump during the 2016 campaign, later becoming one of Trump’s most loyal supporters on Capitol Hill once Trump took office. The Independent and other outlets also characterize Graham as one of the Senate’s influential Republicans. Bloomberg frames his legacy through his role as an experienced Washington figure who evolved within the party as its mainstream moved closer to Trump. Some reporting also references speculation surrounding the sudden nature of his death, but the accounts provided do not establish any definitive cause beyond the medical examiner’s preliminary description.