When Washington’s political leaders gather in the US Capitol on Friday to commemorate the late Senator John McCain, President Donald Trump will travel to one of his private golf clubs for a campaign fundraiser.
In a week of solemn events marking McCain’s passing, Trump has been and will be absent, a reflection of the animosity between the two men that lingered even after the Arizona senator’s death on Saturday from brain cancer.
Trump will also miss Saturday’s service at the Washington National Cathedral, where former President Barack Obama, the Democrat who defeated McCain in 2008, and Republican President George W. Bush will pay tribute to McCain.
Traditionally, sitting American presidents “serve as a source of solace and comfort” for the country at times of loss and tragedy, said Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer.
The Trump-McCain relationship left little room for that.
In 2015, not long after Trump kicked off his…