Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, has died at the age of 71. He died on Saturday evening following a “brief and sudden illness”, according to his office.

Elected to the Senate in 2002, the South Carolina politician was one of Washington’s most influential voices on foreign policy, often pushing for US military intervention overseas.

Donald Trump said Graham was a “true American Patriot” who would be “greatly missed”.

Graham had just returned from Kyiv, where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday. There were no known health concerns ahead of his trip.

Trump told NBC News that he had spoken with Graham hours before his death and the senator “sounded great” but a little tired.

“He was a tough cookie in many ways,” Trump told NBC on Sunday. “If he wanted to get something, if he thought he was right and he had people against him, he could be very tough, actually. But he was a good person.”

According to US media, transmissions from emergency medical personnel at a home he owns in Washington DC said a man at the house was suffering from cardiac arrest.

Graham was previously a vocal critic of Donald Trump, calling him a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” in 2015. The next year, ahead of the 2016 presidential election, he said: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed… and we will deserve it.”

After the US Capitol riots in 2021, Graham told the Senate: “Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way.

“All I can say is a count me out. Enough is enough.”

But over time his tone towards the president softened.