# Lindsey Graham — "we will get destroyed... and we will deserve it" > [!quote] "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it." > — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC), May 3, 2016 ## Context Graham posted this on Twitter/X the day before [[Donald Trump]] became the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee. The tweet was never deleted; Graham later said he simply had not realized it was still online. It resurfaced widely after his death in July 2026. > [!note] Verbatim note > The original tweet uses a run of periods ("destroyed.......and"), not a standard ellipsis. Heather Cox Richardson's July 12, 2026 letter renders it with an ellipsis ("destroyed…….and"). The vault quotes the tweet as posted. ## Why This Matters This is the most-cited single receipt of the pre-conversion Graham. Its prophecy — read against his subsequent decade of loyalty — became his de facto political epitaph, and Heather Cox Richardson closed her account of his death by pairing it with his final act of service to Trump. See [[Lindsey Graham]] for the full arc. ## See Also - [[Lindsey Graham]] - [[Lindsey Graham - race-baiting xenophobic religious bigot]] - [[Lindsey Graham - never another Republican president elected again]] - [[Donald Trump]]