John McCain’s funeral was also a rebuke of an unwelcome US President Donald Trump
The nearly three-hour service at the Washington National Cathedral was a remarkable show of defiance against a president that John McCain openly defied in life
Two ex-presidents from opposing parties united to honour US senator John McCain, in a momentous funeral that championed his aspirations of political comity but also rebuked the tribalism and division trafficked by Donald Trump.
As millions tuned in to the nationally televised memorial attended by the breadth of Washington power brokers, Trump himself was notably absent – leaving the capital to head to his golf club in Virginia just when eulogies to McCain were being delivered.
And while Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama offered subtle swipes at the current commander in chief, McCain’s daughter Meghan used the words of Trump’s campaign slogan to deliver a searing, unmistakable rebuke.
“The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,” she said, to extended applause.
As Bush and Obama praised McCain for repeatedly placing country over party or self, the stunning contrast between the unifying ceremony under the neo-Gothic arches of Washington National Cathedral and an outcast Trump only highlighted the astonishing state of US politics.