Zelensky, Netanyahu lobby Trump for his support as lawmakers gather to mourn Lindsey Graham

Open this photo in gallery:Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, centre, and American counterpart Donald Trump attend the funeral for Lindsey Graham at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday.Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesAs Washington’s Republican elite gathered to mourn Lindsey Graham, the leaders of Ukraine and Israel worked to convince U.S. President Donald Trump to continue the late South Carolina senator’s backing of their military objectives.Ahead of Mr. Graham’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday, which all three leaders attended, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held back-to-back sit-downs with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office.Both meetings unfolded entirely behind closed doors, which was unusual for Mr. Trump, who typically invites television cameras in during White House visits by foreign leaders.Mr. Zelensky used his time with the U.S. President to push for more help defending Ukraine from Russian air strikes. He also urged Mr. Trump to restart negotiations toward a ceasefire.“The President and I discussed licences for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help,” Mr. Zelensky wrote on social media after.Ukrainian officials subsequently told the White House press pool that they expected Mr. Trump’s international negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to visit Kyiv to follow up.Michael Bociurkiw: The question facing Ukrainians in Canada and abroad: Should they stay or should they go?Mr. Netanyahu was next up, spending a little less than 90 minutes with Mr. Trump at a time when the Israeli leader wants to keep the two countries’ attack on Iran going and the U.S. President is continuing to cast about for a swift exit.It was the pair’s first face-to-face meeting since the start of the war on Feb. 28. While the attack represented a political coup for Mr. Netanyahu, who had pressed the U.S. for years to launch a war against Iran, Mr. Trump’s support for the fighting has subsequently wavered as the conflict drags on and Tehran throttles the world’s oil supply.The U.S. President suspended air strikes last Friday as he seeks to revive a previous ceasefire with Tehran.After the meeting, Mr. Netanyahu’s office released a string of photos, including of him and Mr. Trump sitting side by side at the head of the room and smiling.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on social media that the sit-downs with Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Zelensky were “positive and productive!”Mr. Graham was a key ally to both Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Netanyahu as a rare foreign-policy hawk in a circle of often-isolationist advisers around Mr. Trump. He pushed for continuing U.S. military support to Ukraine – as well as a package of ramped-up sanctions on Russia – even as Mr. Trump pressed Kyiv to make concessions to Moscow to end Russia’s invasion.The 71-year-old senator died of an aortic dissection on July 11 at his Washington home, a day after meeting with Mr. Zelensky in Kyiv. In his honour, senators planned a procedural vote on the long-delayed sanctions package for Tuesday night, giving the bill a shot at finally passing this summer. If it becomes law, the legislation would also punish countries buying Russian oil.Open this photo in gallery:People pay their respects at Lindsey Graham's casket in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.Pool/Getty ImagesMr. Graham also long advocated attacking Iran. Mr. Trump’s decision to do just that in February broke with his previous seemingly non-interventionist approach to foreign policy and drove a wedge through the America First movement.“He was extremely hawkish, I will tell you, he never saw a war that he didn’t like,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Graham as he paid tribute to him at his funeral. “He felt in his bones that our destiny is to win.”Mr. Graham’s relationship with Mr. Trump was emblematic of the larger Republican shift from revulsion to embrace. In 2015, Mr. Graham described Mr. Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot” for his promise to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. After Mr. Trump won the following year’s presidential election, however, Mr. Graham rapidly struck up a friendship and became his regular golfing partner.Mr. Trump on Tuesday referred to this history, recounting how, in 2015, he retaliated against Mr. Graham by giving out his phone number at a campaign rally. “While I blew up his phone all for one day, we became great friends and Lindsey did not stop calling me for the next 10 years.”As subsequent speakers addressed the service, Mr. Trump’s head drooped and his eyes closed.Tony Keller: Trump is ending the American century with a bang, and a whimperEarlier in the day, at a memorial in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building, Vice-President JD Vance recalled once having an “intense argument” with Mr. Graham about military aid to Ukraine. “I choose to remember Lindsey Graham as a man who could disagree with you without being disagreeable,” he said.Mr. Trump did not immediately say what had come out of his Oval Office meetings. He publicly berated Mr. Zelensky last year for being insufficiently grateful to the U.S. and suggested Ukraine would have to make territorial concessions to Russia. But more recent talks have been more cordial.Mr. Zelensky has also received unexpected support this month from Laura Loomer, a MAGA influencer who once parroted Russia’s anti-Ukraine talking points but reversed herself after visiting Kyiv and interviewing Mr. Zelensky.Mr. Netanyahu, for his part, is facing increasing political headwinds in the U.S. as polling shows a majority of Americans opposed to the war on Iran and falling support for Israel.New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has also called for Mr. Netanyahu to be arrested to face International Criminal Court charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mr. Trump has said that the U.S., which is not a party to the ICC, will not arrest him.