He began as a small-town lawyer and Air Force JAG, a son of South Carolina who turned courtroom discipline into political stamina. Three decades later, he died in the heart of Washington, a figure who had shaped wars, budgets, and alliances from a Senate seat he seemed almost fused to. His hawkish foreign policy and unflinching defense of a muscular American presence abroad made him a go-to voice in moments of global crisis, whether in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, or beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet his legacy is tangled with transformation. Once a sharp-tongued critic of Donald Trump, he evolved into one of Trump\u2019s fiercest defenders, standing beside a president he had publicly opposed. That pivot defined his final years and divided even his admirers. Still, from Kyiv to Jerusalem to Columbia, leaders now speak of a man whose absence leaves a strategic and emotional void that no successor can immediately fill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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He began as a small-town lawyer and Air Force JAG, a son of South Carolina who turned courtroom discipline into political stamina. Three decades later, he died in the heart … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n