As President Donald Trump pays tribute to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), CNN is reminding viewers of Trump’s not-so-friendly move in 2015 when he publicly revealed Graham’s cell phone number at a rally.
Just a day after then-presidential candidate Graham called Trump a “jackass” on CNN, Trump furthered the feud by referring to the senator as a “lightweight” and an “idiot” during a campaign stop in Bluffton, South Carolina.
He then recalled a time when Graham gave him his digits.
The clip CNN re-aired on Monday takes it from there.
“I wrote the number down. I don’t know if it’s the right number, let’s try it,” remarked Trump, who flashed a piece of paper with a phone number on it to hundreds of people at the rally before reading it aloud.
He later continued, “So, I don’t know, give it a shot.”
Graham, contacted by a Politico reporter who dialed the number, wondered aloud what had caused an influx of calls.
“When it comes to the Donald, nothing surprises me anymore. It’s just too bad, really,” he told Politico at the time.
The senator later hit back in a playful — yet destructive — video by the Independent Journal Review that shows him wrecking phones using a blender, a golf driver and lighter fluid, among other methods.
“Or if all else fails, you can always give your number to the Donald,” he remarked at the end of the video.
Graham later dropped out of the 2016 presidential race and, despite his blunt warning about what would happen if Republicans nominated Trump at the convention that year, slipped into his role as an ally during Trump’s first term.
He briefly denounced Trump in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, only to morph back into being an ally not long after.
As recently as last month, Graham joked that Trump was someone “not far behind God” after his GOP primary win in South Carolina.