What Lindsey Graham's funeral revealed about the world under Trump

It was Lindsey Graham's last political act: bringing leaders of two of his great causes, Israel and Ukraine, back before President Donald Trump. Like many Washington funerals, the senator's on Tuesday was as much about the living -- and their immortal game of politics -- as the dead. It underscored the late son of South Carolina's role as a great convener. But a day of high-stakes diplomacy on the sidelines of the ceremony also reflected a fundamental truth: Trump is the center of gravity. The pair came to Washington Tuesday on contradictory missions: Zelensky is desperate for Trump's help in ending a war. Netanyahu wants the president to restart one. Zelensky said on X that he'd discussed with Trump how Ukraine could get licenses to manufacture US Patriot anti-missile interceptors and "some other ideas that could help." Trump's apparent openness to permit such licensing caused an optimistic stir during a recent trip to Europe -- but it may have been a mirage. "The problem with licensing is that it's not going to address the time urgency of this problem for Ukraine," former CIA Russia analyst George Beebe said in a Quincy Institute Briefing. "That will take probably years before it really churns out interceptor missiles in the numbers that the Ukrainians need to cope with the Russian threat." There's little urgency in the White House to do more. Trump on Monday complained that the Biden administration sent too much hardware to Ukraine as he dodged reports the Iran war had depleted US munitions. And while Graham was a key influence on Trump when it came to Ukraine, there's been a greater one: Putin, in his regular phone calls with the president.