GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “As the luncheon dishes were placed down, the master of ceremonies kicked off a boisterous round of Lindsey Graham trivia. ‘What is the senator’s middle name?’ she asked the ballroom of meatloaf-eating Republicans in Greenville, S.C. ‘What’s the name of the bar the senator’s family owned?’ For those of you playing along at home, Lindsey Olin Graham grew up around his parents’ beer-and-pool joint, the Sanitary Cafe, in working-class Central, S.C., where he played the child mascot to the regulars. ‘I was conscious,’ he wrote in his 2015 memoir, ‘that I was giving a performance.’ When it came Graham’s time to speak, he started out in this long-ingrained lounge-act mode. ‘I’m from the federal government; I’m here to help,’ he said — a Ronald Reagan joke that has been Graham’s preferred icebreaker for years. But after a few minutes of breezy repartee, his tone assumed an edge.”
–Mark Leibovich, “How Lindsey Graham Went From Trump Skeptic to Trump Sidekick,” The New York Times online, February 25, 2019