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Washington woke up to the unexpected death of Republican senator Lindsey Graham, 71, who changed the course of modern history with his hawkish Iran platform and key role in establishing the stridently conservative US supreme court.

Donald Trump was one of the first to pay tribute to the controversial South Carolina lawmaker, a close ally despite past differences, in a social media post. “Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead!” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform. “He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!! DETAILS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO FOLLOW. So sad!”

Trump later told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that one of Graham’s legacies as a legislator was helping to confirm US supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

“I don’t think he could have gotten through without Lindsey,” Trump said of Kavanaugh. The president added: “He was a great politician. He really was. He got along with a lot of people that you wouldn’t think of. He was somebody that loved our country. And he fought very hard for the country.”

Graham’s death on Saturday was described by his office as a “brief and sudden illness”. The Washington Post reported a call at 8.30am near the senator’s Washington DC home with details of a cardiac arrest.

The news came just after a trip to Ukraine – and before Congress was due back in session Monday.

Trump said he had spoken with Graham on Saturday after the senator returned from Ukraine. Graham had told him he was going on Meet the Press on Sunday. “I said, just relax and take it easy,” Trump said. “He just got back from a long trip. I thought he was just gonna live forever, and it didn’t work out that way.”

JD Vance said on X that Graham “came from humble beginnings and became one of the most powerful lawmakers in the most powerful nation on Earth”, making “his story … a fundamentally American one”.

“He fought like hell for the things he believed in, and he was just as willing to go to bat for you when it counted,” the US vice-president said. “Lindsey had the best sense of humor in the Senate. He loved the game of politics ... we certainly had our disagreements. But I couldn’t help but like him.”

In Graham’s home state, Republican governor Henry McMaster released a statement on the senator’s death Saturday night.

“Lindsey Graham is irreplaceable,” he said. “The fiercest of fighters for South Carolina and America – and a loyal and steadfast friend.”

Former president George W Bush said Graham was “a knowledgeable Senator who understood how the world works and how important America’s engagement is to resist tyranny.”

Republican US Senate majority leader John Thune said on X that his “heart is heavy this morning to learn of the passing of my friend and colleague”.

Thune alluded to Graham’s longtime service in the US air force and Congress, saying it positioned him to be “a strong advocate for the United States and a strong ally to freedom-loving countries across the globe”.

Texas congressman Michael McCaul on Sunday told ABC News This Week that Graham believed in former US president Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength doctrine”.

Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman from California, told Meet the Press on Sunday that Graham “was someone who bucked his own party on immigration – who talked about having undocumented people have a pathway to citizenship”.

Khanna, however, did acknowledge that he and Graham had “very profound disagreements on foreign policy” – and said he believed there was “a new generation that does not want these foreign wars and wants a more human rights-oriented foreign policy”.

​Outside the US, foreign leaders begin to release their own statements on the polarizing American figure whose influence on US policy had wide ranging implications across the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had recently met Graham in Kyiv, said on Sunday that he was “deeply saddened” by the news of Graham’s passing. Zelenksyy called Graham “a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer”.

Graham “visited Ukraine ten times” during the years since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, kicking off a war that remains ongoing, Zelenskyy added in a post on X. “He … was here with our people when it was most needed. We remained in constant dialogue, and I will miss our conversations.”

Zelenskyy said he had met with Graham twice in the week before the senator’s death and called him “a staunch advocate for bipartisan and bicameral support for Ukraine”.

“In recent weeks, he had been working on important initiatives that could help bring peace closer, including stronger sanctions against Russia,” Zelenskyy said.

Echoing Zelenskyy, McCaul on Sunday credited Graham with a new Russia sanctions bill which was due to be introduced to the US Senate in the coming days.

“I think in his honor that we owe it to Lindsey Graham to pass that tough Russian sanctions bill,” McCaul said. “He would love nothing more than that.​”

Israel’s prime minster, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a post on X: “Lindsey understood that the security of Israel and America are inseparable. He devoted his life to defending America, strengthening our alliance and standing up for the free world. Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend.”

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said that he was “so sad to learn of the sudden passing of my friend”.

“He was a powerful advocate for America who believed strongly in the Nato Alliance and was actively working to bring an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Rutte said on social media.

The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said Graham was “a true friend and partner of Germany,” adding: “We stood side by side for more than four decades”.