The feud between Donald Trump and the late John McCain goes back for nearly two decades, and even though the former senator passed away last August, Trump has continued their rivalry all on his own. It seems to have started in 1999 when Trump said in an interview that McCain shouldn’t be considered a war hero because he was captured. The man was forced to eject himself from his plane, broke a bunch of bones on the way down, nearly drown, got caught by the Vietnamese, was tortured for information, and imprisoned for years, but that doesn’t make him a hero in Trump’s book. The man who weaseled his way out of the war by getting five bogus deferments. McCain commented on this saying:
One aspect of the [Vietnam] conflict by the way that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest income level of America and the highest income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur. That is wrong. If we are going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve.
Even though McCain passed away months ago, Trump is still trying to win an argument with him.
Trump Refused To Release Official Statement After McCain’s Death
An official statement was written praising McCain after his death, yet Trump refused to release it. The statement mentioned the former senator’s career in politics as well as his time in the military. Trump rejected the whole thing, saying he’d send out a tweet instead. Perhaps the president was salty after McCain requested that Trump be banned from his funeral in the days before his death. Either that or he saw that McCain was labeled a “hero” in the statement, which we all know he disagrees with.
The Flag Wasn’t Kept At Half-Staff
After McCain passed away, the president signed a statement announcing that the White House flag would remain at half-staff until his funeral. Planned for the weekend following his death, it seems that Trump couldn’t even wait that long before raising the White House flag back up. In fact, they didn’t even wait two days. McCain died on a Saturday, the White House lowered the flag to half-staff that night, and it was back up by Monday morning. Obviously, people were pissed and made a fuss until the flag was lowered again.
Trump Attacks McCain On Twitter
When Trump found out that McCain had a hand in turning over documents to the FBI that resulted in the longest investigation of all time, it’s safe to say that he was pissed. Instead of being mature about the situation, he acted in true Trump-fashion with a ridiculous Twitter tirade. To say that this was a waste of time is being kind. McCain had been buried for months at this point, and smearing his name only makes Trump look bad. It seems that no one taught him to respect the dead though.
Even Ken Starr of Fox News, who Trump quotes in the last tweet, had enough respect for McCain to call him a “great man” and an “American hero” after calling his involvement in sharing this infamous dossier a “very dark stain” on his career. While the former senator may not be able to stand up to the bully in the Oval Office, his daughter certainly can. Meghan McCain responded to one of Trump’s tweets with an epic clapback that her father would definitely be proud of.
Trump Wanted A Thank You For McCain’s Funeral
Just days after his Twitter tirade, Trump couldn’t stop talking about the late senator in a speech he made at a tank factory in Lima, Ohio. Whatever the original purpose of the speech was, the man clearly missed his mark. Instead, he attacked a man who can’t even defend himself. In his speech Trump said:
I endorsed him at his request, and I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as President I had to approve. I don’t care about this. I didn’t get thank you. That’s OK. We sent him on the way. But I wasn’t a fan of John McCain.
People were pissed, to say the least. These were some of the responses on Twitter:
Trump is totally bashing John McCain again in front of a pro-military crowd in Ohio.
— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) March 20, 2019
The crowd is silent.
Trump just dumped on McCain again at the Ohio rally to dead silence.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) March 20, 2019
Got some boos against McCain when he mentioned the dossier.
But the line fell totally flat.
Trump also made sure to call attention to his opinion on McCain’s failure to address veterans issues saying, “McCain didn’t get the job done for our great vets at the VA, and they knew it.” Trump often brought attention to McCain’s service record during his campaign, ensuring that everyone knew that he didn’t think McCain was a hero. We get it, you don’t like him. Trump thinks trashing McCain is how he won support from military veterans during the election. If you say so!
Trump Attacked McCain Again On Fox News
Trump claims that the only reason he talks about McCain so much is because the media keeps asking him about it. However, it seems unlikely that the press is writing his speeches or taking over his brain when he’s tweeting in the middle of the night. In an interview with Fox News, Trump took the opportunity to trash McCain once again, this time on his vote not to repeal ObamaCare in 2017.
He was horrible, what he did with repeal and replace. What he did to the Republican Party and to the nation and to sick people that could have had great healthcare was not good.
If only we were fortunate enough to have a president who didn’t harp on the past and could focus on the future for like five minutes. Maybe then we could get through a week without being overwhelmed by the media announcing some political disaster or another. McCain is gone, and this feud should have died along with him. Someone needs to tell Trump that it’s over.
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