Donald Trump ‘Roasts’ Lindsey Graham at Funeral (Video)

Donald Trump is facing fresh backlash after critics accused him of turning Lindsey Graham’s funeral into another Trump-style spectacle.

The president spoke Tuesday, July 28, at Graham’s memorial service at Washington National Cathedral, where the late South Carolina senator was remembered by political leaders, friends and allies after his sudden death earlier this month.

But one moment from Trump’s eulogy quickly lit up social media.

Trump takes issue with the Lindsey Graham eulogy he's reading: "Virtually everyone liked Lindsey. Well, not everybody. But it sounds good. I have to be honest. I have to veer from this for a second." pic.twitter.com/L5JwAXxWi0

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 28, 2026

While reading prepared remarks, Trump told mourners that “virtually everyone, Republican or Democrat, liked Lindsey.” Then, in classic Trump fashion, he stopped himself.

“Well, not everybody,” Trump added. “But it sounds good. Not everybody.”

He continued by calling Graham a “tough cookie,” before veering further from the written remarks.

“I have to veer from this for a second,” Trump said. “He was a tough cookie, darling. But he was beautiful.”

The line may have drawn some laughs in the room, but online, critics were not nearly as forgiving.

As clips of the eulogy spread across X, users accused Trump of making the solemn tribute about himself and using Graham’s funeral as a stage for another off-the-cuff performance.

“Wowwww this guy is completely unhinged,” one critic wrote, accusing Trump of “roasting the guy at his funeral proceeding.”

Another user said Trump somehow managed to “take a eulogy and make it about himself,” while a third, who said they were not a “huge Graham fan,” still called the moment “narcissistic.”

Others argued the president seemed unable to let Graham be praised without undercutting the sentiment.

“Imagine dying and Trump uses your funeral to workshop crowd material,” another person joked.

The backlash came despite Trump offering plenty of praise for Graham during the service.

Trump called the late senator a “beloved friend” and a “force to be reckoned with all over the world,” describing him as one of the most plugged-in and influential Republicans in Washington.

“For more than 30 years, nothing of consequence happened in this capital without Lindsey Graham knowing about it,” Trump said. “Nothing of significance happened anywhere in the world without Lindsey Graham having a view on it.”

He added, “He was a man who gave America the full measure of his good and mighty heart until that heart itself just gave out. There was truly nobody like Lindsey Graham.”

Trump also nodded to Graham’s famously hawkish foreign policy views, joking that the senator “never saw a war that he didn’t like.”

“He wanted a strong America,” Trump said. “He had unwavering faith in the righteousness of American power and prayer.”

Graham, a longtime Republican power broker and one of Trump’s most complicated allies, died July 11 at age 71 after what was described as a brief and sudden illness. Medical examiners later determined his cause of death was aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

An aortic dissection is a medical emergency that occurs when a tear develops in the inner layer of the aorta, the body’s main artery.

Following Graham’s death, his sister, Darline, was selected to temporarily fill his Senate seat.

For Trump’s defenders, the eulogy was simply the president remembering Graham in the blunt, unscripted style their friendship was known for. But for his critics, the moment was another reminder that even at a funeral, Trump rarely resists turning the spotlight back toward himself.