Update: Shortly after we published this editorial, keen observers noted that the White House lowered the flag to half-staff. New York Post reporter Nikki Schwab tweeted that the move happened between 3:22 and 3:43 ET. The White House issued a statement saying “Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country and, in his honor, have signed a proclamation to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff until the day of his interment.”
Donald Trump’s remark in 2015 that John McCain wasn’t a war hero because he was captured—“I like people that weren’t captured”—was a low-point in American political discourse. After Trump made the remark, the WEEKLY STANDARD’s Stephen F. Hayes asked the presidential candidate if he wished to apologize to McCain. He declined. When Hayes asked if he was familiar with McCain’s story—a year into his five-years of torture in captivity by the North Vietnamese, McCain refused to be released an offer to be released unless his fellow prisoners were also released—Trump said, “It’s irrelevant.”
We would prefer to forget perhaps the most disgraceful of Trump’s many disgraceful remarks, but the president won’t let that happen. Trump had to insult McCain one last time. On Saturday night and Sunday after McCain’s death, the White House flew the flag at half-staff. Yet on Monday—well before McCain’s funeral takes place later this week—the White House raised the flag to full-staff again.
Trump tweeted a brief message of condolence, Vice President Mike Pence posted a fuller one, and other government offices are flying the flag at half-staff to honor the fallen hero. Yet Trump himself couldn’t manage to act like an adult even in the face of a great man’s death, reportedly even rejecting a statement honoring McCain prepared for release in Trump’s name by the White House staff.
It’s be tempting to let this pass. After all, Trump during the campaign revealed himself a small man whose behavior frequently falls below the standards of basic human decency. But this is another new low, breathtaking in its pettiness and classlessness.
There is another reason, too. Trump’s behavior often tempts otherwise sane people on the right into defending it or apologizing for it and so embarrassing themselves. We hope anyone so tempted will resist. And as Adam Rubenstein chronicled in our pages earlier this month, Trump inspires imitators. We’re saddened to wonder how many young conservatives may come to believe it’s entirely proper to disparage the memory of a courageous warrior simply because Donald Trump once thought it sounded cute to question his status as a hero.
It was outrageous the first time. It’s disgusting this time.
