John McCain reportedly doesn't want Trump at his funeral

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published 6 May 2018

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of brain cancer, has reportedly told friends he does not want President Trump at his funeral, The New York Times reported Saturday:

No one is saying goodbye, not explicitly. The son and grandson of admirals, Mr. McCain "doesn't like overt sentimentality," as his friend the former chief of staff Grant Woods put it. But his visitors are telling him they love him, how much he has meant to them — and together they are taking care of unfinished business. [...] His intimates have informed the White House that their current plan for his funeral is for Vice President Mike Pence to attend the service to be held in Washington's National Cathedral but not President Trump, with whom Mr. McCain has had a rocky relationship. [The New York Times]

Trump has belittled McCain's history as a prisoner of war, saying he prefers "people who weren't captured;" and McCain has said Trump lacks "principles and beliefs."

The senator's final book, a memoir titled The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations, is due to release this month. Read more about the book, McCain's daily routine, and the political machinations surrounding who will next hold his Senate seat over at the Times.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.