Critics slam New York Times for claim Trump shocked staff over Graham loss

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joins President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One, January 4, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President Donald Trump appeared to shock his staff and allies by having emotions during a meeting with the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

In a New York Times report about how Trump decided on Graham's sister, Darline Graham Nordone, as the nominee to run for South Carolina's full Senate seat, the piece painted Trump as "grieving." At two points in the report, it mentions a single meeting with Nordone in which Trump appeared to show emotion.

It described Trump as having a "fraught week." The report claimed "several people described [Trump] as uncharacteristically emotional about the death of his friend."

In the meeting with Nordone, top White House officials shared "stories about Mr. Graham. Mr. Trump, who is not known to show emotion, appeared upset by the loss, two people said."

A staffer then handed Trump a list of Graham replacements, and the report rattled off all of the objections as the room moved on. Trump was concerned that having Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.) run for the seat meant leaving open a congressional seat while there's a narrow majority in the House already. Nordone, who was still in the room, asked what he thought about her running for the full term.

Producer and Emmy Award-winner Mark Concannon blasted the Times for "parrot[ing] this Trump pressroom garbage."

"He wasn’t 'grieving' about Lindsey Graham. He just knows his sister will be as big a sycophant as her brother was and do anything he tells her to do. That’s why he endorsed her. Full stop," Concannon added.

Lawyer Steven Jaffe commented, "The NYTimes has outdone itself."

The social bookmarking website Pinboard commented from the company's X account, "Curious how 'a grieving Trump' passed the laugh test at the NYT."

National security analyst Marcy Wheeler pointed out the headline and the discrepancy between the headline and a quick mention of Trump's "emotional" state before breaking into a telling of his shrewd political determinations.

"If you were struck by the description of Trump the sociopath making a decision (to appoint Lindsey's sister, which decision Gov McMaster had already made) [because] of something NYT called 'grief,' the passage on the left precedes the passage on the right in the story," she wrote on BlueSky, pasting the excerpts beside each other.

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