Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator who died on Saturday night, unexpectedly at the age of 71, was a politician who more than many illustrated the changing face of the Republican party in the age of Donald Trump.A former House member, Graham sat in the Senate from 2003 as a foreign policy hawk and a close friend and ally of John McCain, the relatively socially liberal Arizona senator who became the party’s presidential nominee in 2008.Mounting his own run in 2015, Graham presented himself as an anti-Trump voice, colorfully denouncing his rival as a far-right threat. Graham didn’t vote for Trump (backing independent Evan McMullin instead) but once Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, and even after Trump abused McCain both before and after his death, Graham worked his way into Trump’s inner circle. Another estrangement, over January 6 and Trump’s attempted election subversion, lasted an even shorter time. Back onside and on the golf course with Trump, Graham became a vociferous supporter of Trump’s war with Iran.Here’s a taste of how Graham described his political journey.On his childhood in the Sanitary Café, his parents’ bar“I would strut around the place, sometimes dressed as a cowboy – hat, vest and plastic six shooters. I might get up on the bar and walk up and down it while talking to folks. When customers went to the restroom, I might steal their beer and chug it. I might smoke their cigarette, too, if they left it burning in the ashtray. Those were antics that earned me the nickname, ‘Stinkball’, which everyone in the bar except my parents called me.”