Saturday August 25, US senator John McCain passed away at age of 81 due to brain cancer. McCain passed away after serving the US senate for more than 60 years. McCain was loved and admired by many Americans.
“I’ve tried to serve our country honorably,” McCain said in his farewell letter, “I’ve made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.”
Before his death, there were many tensions between President Donald Trump and McCain. President Trump does a good job of sharing every single thing he thinks about on Twitter. After the death of McCain, Trump posted a tweet saying: “My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!”
Trump only expressed his sympathies for McCain’s family. He didn’t bother honoring John McCain’s lifetime of service to this nation in our military. He didn’t bother honoring him for his three Bronze Stars and two Legion of Merit awards. He didn’t bother honoring him for the Distinguished Flying Cross award he received for his acts of heroism.
Trump refused to call McCain a war hero during an interview with him back in 2015. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said, “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, okay? I hate to tell you. He’s a war hero because he was captured, okay?”
During his military years, McCain was captured and imprisoned in North Vietnam. He was tortured and beaten. When he got the chance to finally leave prison, he refused to leave unless his fellow POWs were released as well. Due to this small part of McCain’s military experience, Trump denied all his other achievements and refused to call him a hero of war.
McCain served in the Vietnam War. He is considered to be a great US veteran. Insulting veterans is a terrible thing to do. No one in America is accepting of that, and Trump’s decision to not apologize for his insult makes the situation ten times worse.
Trump never seems to think twice before letting words out of his mouth. Many people admired that about him and voted for him because they thought he was different from previous presidents. However, his lack of professionalism in the way he talks has caused him many problems.
Despite his shared feelings of disliking Trump, McCain still respected Trump as a president and didn’t share negative things about him through childish tweets. Even though they didn’t get along, Twitter was never an option to talk negative about him.
McCain’s death sparked many reactions across America. Meghan McCain, McCain’s daughter, shared in a message she wrote, “He taught me how to live. His love and his care, ever present, always unfailing, took me from a girl to a woman — and he showed me what it is to be a man.”