Donald Trump’s latest attack on John McCain is a review of the late Republican stalwart’s funeral in his new coffee table book.
Mr Trump’s forthcoming book Letters to Trump features embittered comments about the war veteran and the length of his funeral, where the former president was not welcome.
“I never warmed to him,” wrote the one-time president, “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.”
McCain’s funeral took place over five days across three different cities. There is no evidence to show it was “the world’s longest”.
The former naval officer who unsuccessfully ran for president died in 2018 at the age of 81 after a battle with brain cancer.
Several former presidents had attended McCain’s funeral. Barack Obama and George Bush – who blocked his bid for the White House – were asked to give eulogies.
The longstanding feud began when McCain called out Mr Trump for his “uninformed” and “dangerous” comments on national security issues in the run up to the 2016 presidential elections.
Mr Trump then mocked McCain, who was captured and tortured during the Vietnam war, by saying he was “not a war hero” and that he preferred “people who weren’t captured”.
The twice-impeached president also said the “world’s longest funeral” was at the request of McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain.
“At the request of many of [Meghan’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,” Mr Trump said.
Another crude pile on by Mr Trump against McCain was over the latter often being called a Republican In Name Only (RINO).
“In his own very special way, he was a RINO’s RINO.”
In 2017, McCain had voted to torpedo a Trump-supported healthcare bill in what would have been Mr Trump’s first legislative achievement as president.
In a 2021 interview, McCain’s daughter said she held on to her “blood feud” with Mr Trump, after he branded her a “bully” and “lowlife”.
“My first reaction was, ‘Thanks for the publicity’,” Ms McCain had then told Fox News. “He really has a way of helping people get publicity for their books.”
