Topline

President Donald Trump addressed the rocky start to his relationship with former Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., acknowledging at the late senator’s funeral he “shouldn’t have” shared Graham’s personal phone number at a rally during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, sounding lightly apologetic at the memorial for the senator who later became his “great friend.”

Key Facts

Reacting after Graham called Trump a “jacka–” in 2015, Trump said he “did something that I shouldn’t have done — I shared his personal cell phone number with the millions of people that happened to be watching that particular day, as I made a speech, a very important speech.”

Trump joked that Graham’s phone “exploded” after the reveal—prompting Graham to destroy the device a day later on video.

Trump said the incident was actually the “beginning of a friendship,” noting “it was Lindsey who had the last laugh, because 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.”

This is a breaking story and will be updated.