Meghan McCain slams Donald Trump at John McCain’s funeral
John McCain’s funeral was a day for political unity across the aisle. President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush delivered eulogies. President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton were also in attendance. Al Gore and George W. Bush, two of the bitterest rivals in the history of presidential politics, greeted each other warmly. Everyone was there – except for current “President” Donald Trump, who wasn’t invited. John McCain’s daughter wasted no time highlighting this fact.
During her speech at the funeral, Meghan McCain delivered the line “We don’t need to make America great again, because America was always great.” This was clearly a reference to Donald Trump’s political slogan “Make American great again,” and it was unmistakably a rebuke of Donald Trump and everything he stands for. In case that wasn’t clear enough, she added “We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly.”
Before he passed away, John McCain made clear to friends that he wanted Obama and Bush to do the eulogies, and didn’t want Trump there at all. It’s not difficult to parse that he was seeking to unite the nation against Trump, so it’s not surprising that his daughter took this to its next logical step by slamming Trump without mentioning his name.
For his part, Donald Trump spent the day posting nonsensical tweets about imaginary conspiracy theories, before heading to his golf course. One might think that Trump would have the sense to lay low on a day like this, in which he was being publicly shamed by an American hero. But that’s just not in Trump’s nature, and so he put on a show today which helped validate the feeling that John McCain and Meghan McCain felt toward him.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report