Is Donald Trump Blackmailing Lindsey Graham? A Former Republican Operative Weighs In

Back in 2016, when it became clear that Donald Trump might just be the 2016 GOP presidential nominee, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned that nominating Trump would be catastrophic for Republicans, posting his warning on Twitter.

Trump did indeed win the nomination and then went on to win the 2016 election, defeating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and Graham suddenly became one of the Donald’s staunchest defenders.

So what happened? Why did Graham do a 180 so quickly? Could it have been blackmail?

That question was poised to former Republican operative Tim Miller by Ron Filpkowski this week when Filipkowski asked what member of the GOP had most disappointed Miller in recent years.

Miller named Graham, noting that the senator had been a “hoot” to have on the 2016 campaign trail. At the time, Graham was supporting Jeb Bush and making appearances on the former Florida governor’s behalf:

“Me and Lindsey got to hang out a lot, like, two months. And his hatred for Trump, Ron, was greater than ours…. he would say stuff to me and every once in a while I’d be like, ‘OK, Lindsey, you’re going a little far. He’s really bad, but he’s not Hitler. He’s too stupid to be Hitler.”

That led Filpkowski to ask Miller if he thought perhaps Graham had become an ardent Trumper because Trump had blackmailed him.

Miller replied:

“No, I don’t. I don’t think Trump is good enough at keeping secrets to have blackmail… Lindsey, I think, is just a really weak person.”

Others, however, disagree, and  Jon Cooper of the Democratic Coalition said in 2019 that a Republican told him Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin did indeed have dirt on Graham and it was sexual in nature: