Trump Reacts To John McCain's Death | HuffPost Latest News

President Donald Trump on Saturday expressed his condolences to the family of Sen. John McCain , who died Saturday after a battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer .

My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!

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My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2018

The two men, while both Republicans , were political foes. McCain was a leading member of the so-called Never Trumpers, conservatives who refused to get onboard the Trump train.

According to reports, the president was disinvited to McCains funeral.

Trump made his disdain for McCain clear in the summer of 2015 shortly after announcing his presidential run by throwing out a belittling comment about the Arizona senators military record. He told a crowd gathered at an Iowa political forum that McCain was not a war hero .

The future president suggested that others considered McCain a hero because he was captured. But Trump said, I like people who werent captured.

Trump avoided service in the military. McCain, a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War, was shot down and held prisoner for more than five years. He was repeatedly tortured, but he declined a North Vietnamese offer to release him before others who had been captured earlier. Despite fielding criticism from a vast array of public officials, Trump refused to apologize and reportedly has no regrets .

Days before Trumps slighting remarks, McCain had said the candidate fired up the crazies at the fringes of the GOP with his incendiary comments about Mexican immigrants in McCains home state of Arizona.

Over the next few years, the two men continued to clash.

On several occasions last summer, the president taunted and mocked McCain at rallies where Trumps supporters chanted in response , Drain the swamp! McCain set off that criticism when, just days after receiving his devastating medical diagnosis, he voted against a Republican health care bill to repeal and replace Obamacare with a dramatic thumbs-down gesture.

Trump seemed unable to let that July 2017 vote go. Months afterward he bashed the senator on Twitter over the failed bill, claiming McCain let Arizona down! Nearly a year later, at a Tennessee political rally, the president brought it up again .

Then there was the time Congress passed a bill with McCains name on it.

In August 2018, Trump signed the $717 billion defense measure, officially titled the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act, but neglected to mention the senator at all at the signing ceremony, instead boasting about a new military branch he wanted to create dubbed the Space Force. (Former Secretary of State John Kerry, another Vietnam War vet, called the scene disgraceful.) Trump did reference McCain later that day but only to insult him .

In private, the presidents ridicule would reportedly get physical , mocking McCain (and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell) with gestures and posturing. Once, during a meeting, White House aide Kelly Sadler reportedly dismissed McCains views with a cruel remark: Hes dying anyway.

McCains rebuttals were generally measured, in contrast to the presidents brash rhetorical style.

When Trump threatened North Korea on Twitter, McCain critiqued the move by saying, I dont think thats a way you attack an issue and a challenge like this. Of Trumps performance at the NATO summit in 2018, McCain said it was disappointing, yet ultimately unsurprising. After Trump congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his election victory, McCain noted, An American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections.

McCain described Trumps July 2018 summit with Putin where Trump once again refused to fully accept U.S. intelligence agencies assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election as one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.

Whether Trump will back off the McCain jabs now that the senator has died remains to be seen.

Meghan McCain, the senators talk show host daughter, indicated earlier this year that the White House has offered her family private apologies for some of the presidents remarks in the past. But she added that Trumps attacks are something shes never going to forgive.