Donald Trump isn’t yet ready to quit launching broadsides at the late John McCain.
In a new book, Letters to Trump, the former president reviewed McCain’s funeral by musing that “much like his wars, it never ended.”
McCain passed away at the age of 81 in 2018 after a battle with brain cancer. The longtime Arizona legislator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee had a tumultuous relationship with Trump. During Trump’s first run for the White House in 2016, McCain critiqued his “uninformed and indeed dangerous statements on national security issues,” prompting Trump to mock McCain’s military service during the Vietnam War, which included a stint at a military prison camp where he was tortured
Then in 2017, McCain voted against a healthcare reform bill favored by Trump, sinking what would have been his first major legislative accomplishment as president.
Letters to Trump “reveals part of the incredible private collection of correspondence between President Trump and the countless world leaders, celebrities, athletes and business leaders who shaped the United States, and the world,” including correspondence with McCain and commentary about the deceased war hero.
“I never warmed to him,” wrote Trump, “never felt good about anybody having anything to do with John McCain and never will, even despite the fact that at their request, I gave him the world’s longest funeral, 11 days. Much like his wars, it never ended.”
Trump was not invited to the funeral, while the two men most responsible for foiling his presidential aspirations, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, were asked to deliver eulogies. The Washington Post reported at the time that Trump personally nixed staffers’ plans to issue a statement honoring McCain. For his part, Trump offered the McCain family condolences in a tweet, but declined to say anything about McCain himself.
Since McCain’s passing, Trump has repeatedly returned to the topic, even attacking his daughter Meghan in a particularly ghastly 2021 statement that deemed her a “lowlife” and “bully.” and again touched on the senator’s funeral.
“At the request of many of her [Meghan McCain’s] representatives, I made it possible for her father to have the world’s longest funeral, designed and orchestrated by him, even though I was never, to put it mildly, a fan,” continued Trump. “In his own very special way, he was a RINO’s RINO.”
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
For more latest Politics News Click Here