The president and vice president both spoke at the military base, where the president signed the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act. But in touting the new bill, which they celebrated for increasing military spending, neither men uttered the name of John McCain. The senator, who has been fighting brain cancer for a year, was an unperson at the event.
At the signing of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act at Fort Drum, neither Trump nor Pence mentioned the ailing Sen. McCain.
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) August 13, 2018
Trump and McCain have long been political foes, despite belonging to the same party. In 2015, Trump notoriously said of McCain, “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.” Trump later pretended not to have said McCain wasn’t a hero and never apologized for these words.
Later, after Trump won the presidency, McCain proved to be the decisive vote against Trump’s signature policy of repealing Obamacare. Trump continues to take jibes as McCain at rallies, notably when the president visited Nevada this past June:
Campaigning for Heller in Vegas, Trump is again attacking @SenJohnMcCain (although not directly by name) for his “thumb’s down” vote on Obamacare repeal.
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) June 23, 2018
Trump’s continued belittling of McCain speaks to the president’s pettiness and also his desire to remake the Republican Party in his image by casting aside all internal critics. The fact that Vice President Mike Pence followed the president’s lead in this matter shows that Trump’s campaign against McCain is shaping how others in the GOP treat the ailing senator.