WASHINGTON — A harried Sen. Lindsey Graham waved off reporters last week as he sped through a Capitol hallway heading to a key meeting with Vice President JD Vance and his Senate Republican colleagues.

“Not now,” he said, further increasing his gait. Asked if he would take a question about anything but budget reconciliation, the usually chatty South Carolina Republican responded with a grin: “Not anything, not right now.”

Graham was on his way to try forging something of a strategic compromise with Vance over the process Republicans are using to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda. The Senate ultimately adopted on a mostly party-line vote a blueprint from the Budget Committee, which Graham chairs, despite Trump endorsing a more expansive version that the House narrowly pushed through Tuesday evening.

Graham emerged from last week’s session with Vance calling the Senate budget measure a “Plan B” that would be available should the House effort fall short.

Perhaps more than any other GOP senator, Trump has put Graham, a frequent golf partner, in difficult positions at times with his declarations on Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Middle East and budget reconciliation, among other topics. Yet the two have found a way to coexist, as have other congressional Republicans.

For example, Graham was quick to praise Trump earlier this month over one of the president’s favorite issues: tariffs.

“I applaud President Trump’s decision to impose reciprocal tariffs against our trading partners. Whatever tariffs they put on American products, we will put on their products,” he wrote on social media on Feb. 13. “This will be a game changer. Simple and brilliant.”

Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt was asked recently if it was wise for Trump to so harshly criticize Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom the U.S. president has incorrectly labeled a dictator and falsely blamed for starting the war with Russia. The Senate Armed Services member found a way to steer clear of any public disagreement with Trump, resorting, as other Republicans and visiting foreign leaders often have, with praise.

“Thankfully, we have a president with the guts to stand up on the world stage and try to end this thing,” he said of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “That’s what I support.”

A reporter asked, “Is it wise to criticize Zelenskyy?” Schmitt paused and replied, “I’m not going to get into the tactics,” before returning to effusive statements about the president.

“President Trump’s going to be able to deliver it. He understands what the stakes are, the American people, again, all of these things, whether it’s (the Department of Government Efficiency) or this, President Trump talked about all this stuff,” he said.

Schmitt’s comments to a group of reporters might be considered a master class in how GOP lawmakers can maintain warm relations with Trump and his surrogates.

“I think that the Democrats or whoever, swinging at every pitch is a bad strategy,” he said. “I think it’s very encouraging that (Trump) is engaged in this peace process.”

One Trump ally even turned to a conspiracy theory to back the president.

“We instigated it. … We overthrew the government in Ukraine in 2014,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said last week, before appearing to cite the incorrect year for Zelenskyy’s election: “Our CIA did, they put in Zelenskyy, and then all heck went south.”

Snap elections in 2014 — forced when the disintegrating Ukrainian government opted against closer ties with the European Union and instead bolstered linkages to Moscow — led to Petro Poroshenko coming to power. Zelenskyy defeated him five years later in a runoff, but the country has not held an election since then, as the Ukrainian Constitution does not allow for it during wartime.

‘Inflection point’

Perhaps the main reason Republicans have largely been finding ways to either go along with Trump’s daily declarations or give him political cover without directly engaging on those matters: He remains wildly popular with GOP voters.

A Feb. 13-17 CNN/SSRS poll found that 88% of Republicans approved of Trump’s job performance, with just 11% disapproving. With the 2026 midterm election cycle just around the corner, House and Senate Republicans have been eager to avoid offending those very voters.

“I think the GOP Senators who may have different budget and foreign policy goals than the administration are doing well rowing in the same direction, as of now,” Aaron Cutler, a former House GOP leadership aide, said in a Wednesday email. “Obviously, we are reaching a key inflection point on budget reconciliation and (fiscal 2025) government funding. We will see how this holds.”

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said on social media Monday that he didn’t “want to hear any Republicans talk about ‘freedom’ unless they have the guts to call out Trump for the lies that he is telling about (Vladimir) Putin and Ukraine.”

“It was Russia that started the war, not Ukraine,” he added. “Putin is the dictator, not (Zelenskyy).”

Which circles back to Graham, who is seeking a fifth Senate term next year. A review of his social media posts reflects a desire for the U.S. to stand by Zelenskyy on the battlefield — while also supporting Trump’s push for a peace pact.

“On the third anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, I stand in awe of the performance of the Ukrainian military, political leadership and body politic,” Graham wrote on Monday. “I hope and pray that the efforts by President Trump and his team to negotiate a ceasefire in order to end this war on just and honorable terms will be successful soon.”

Notably, some two weeks earlier, Graham and Trump were pictured smiling widely at the Super Bowl from a suite in the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. The senator was flashing a thumbs-up sign.

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