'This is power': Biographer reveals dark secret Trump wielded over Lindsey Graham
One of President Donald Trump's biographers revealed a dark secret that the president may have used to wield power over the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Graham, who died on Saturday from an aortic dissection after traveling home from Ukraine, was one of Trump's sharpest critics leading up to the president's first election in 2016, but soon became what some described as a supplicant. Graham was one of Trump's biggest allies on Capitol Hill and was instrumental in multiple legislative wins. He also helped rehabilitate Trump's image following the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Michael Wolff, who has written four books about Trump, claimed during a new episode of "Inside Trump's Head," a podcast he co-hosts with Joanna Coles of The Daily Beast, that Trump held the key to Graham's public transformation.
"I don’t think that there’s anybody in Washington at any informed level who was not aware that Lindsey Graham was gay, but Lindsey Graham was also in the closet," Wolff claimed. "This was also a discussion within the Trump circle. So this was very well known."
Graham was unmarried and had no children at the time of his death. He never publicly confirmed rumors about his sexuality during his time in office, but some people who were around him have raised questions about his behavior in private.
Wolff noted that Trump didn't think much one way or the other about Graham's sexuality other than it meant "he had something on Lindsey.”
“Lindsey Graham never said, ‘I’m gay, and if I don’t suck up to Donald Trump, I’m screwed.’ Never. Of course, never anything like that,” Wolff said. “But again, that sense of Donald Trump as this unknown, a constant variable, ‘What is he going to do?’”
“Even now ... and you haven’t fessed up to this," Wolff continued. "I think Lindsey Graham obviously also knew the game. This is politics. This is power at a very high level. People will do anything to you. Nothing is off limits in this context.”