Defying Decency and Protocol, White House Returns Flags to Full Staff After John McCain’s Death

President Trump had about as bad of a week as can be imagined, last week. The only way it would have been worse would be if Russia’s President Putin simply tired of his plaything and released the kompromat he has to the world.

That day may be coming soon, the way the Orange One’s luck is running.

Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, David Pecker, and Allen Weisselberg – it was a mountain of guilty verdicts, guilty pleas, and old friends and associates flipping on Donald Trump.

If he owes Senator John McCain nothing else, he can be assured that the Arizona Republican’s death on Saturday drew attention away from the swiftly crumbling Trump universe.

With that in mind, you’d think President Man-Baby would show a bit more class in honoring the memory of Senator McCain, despite their well-documented political differences.

It would be the classy thing to do.

And yes, I understand that there’s no relationship between Donald Trump and class.

I touched on the prickly relationship between Trump and McCain over the weekend. It began with Trump trashing John McCain’s status as a war hero while he was still just candidate Trump.

According to Trump, John McCain, who spent five years as a Vietnam POW and lived out his life from that time with lasting injuries, was only considered a “hero” because he was captured. He preferred those who weren’t captured.

This is the same Trump, I must remind you, that received five deferments from serving, due to “bone spurs.” It’s also the same Donald Trump who boasted that his Vietnam was avoiding sexually transmitted diseases.

So, a sore foot kept him from serving his country, but it didn’t keep him from being a sleazy fornicator.

But back to Senator McCain’s death.

Trump issued a generic statement of condolence to the McCain family through social media. A report that I covered on Sunday night revealed that White House staff wanted to release a gracious tribute to McCain, but Trump nixed the idea, in favor of the more bland, assembly line statement.

I get it. They didn’t like each other. McCain was harsh, regarding the president. He railed against Trump’s mealy-mouthed acquiescence to Putin at the Helsinki summit and proved a continuous stumbling block for many of Trump’s plots.

Before his death, McCain went so far as to say he didn’t want Trump at his funeral, and asked former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to speak at the ceremony.

After the news of Senator McCain’s passing on Saturday, the flag at the White House was lowered to half-staff, as is customary when a statesman passes away.

It’s Monday morning. What has changed?

Several reporters arriving at the White House early Monday noted that the flags were at half staff for less than 48 hours following the Senate giant’s death. President Trump ordered the flags lowered on Saturday evening.

A number of reporters and commentators noted that in the past flags remained lowered to honor lawmakers and major public figures until their funerals.

Was this an oversight?

Flags at the White House were lowered to half staff this weekend for the passing of John McCain but this morning they are back to full staff.

There was no official proclamation from President Trump (as he has done in the past for other notable figures passing) pic.twitter.com/rmUO6xbtrp

— Karen Travers (@karentravers) August 27, 2018

It was not. If that White House flag was lowered through the weekend, someone gave the order to have it fully raised today. Nor was it an “oversight” to neglect issuing any sort of proclamation.

McCain is scheduled to lie in the Arizona State Capitol on Wednesday and then the U.S. Capitol on Friday. He will be buried at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., on Sunday.

And that flag should remain lowered to half-staff until Sunday. There’s zero excuse for this.

As is the want of trolls, there have been plenty to attack the corpse of John McCain on social media. Most of them are those who have not given even an ounce of what McCain has given in service to this nation, and that includes President Trump.

The man’s politics no longer matter. All that matters now is that his journey in this life is over. He earned the kind of send off that every other American dignitary deserves.

Trump’s day will come, in time. Given what we already know, it would seem he would be best served by trying to build up a bit of goodwill for himself now, while he can.

I suspect when Trump’s bloated corpse is interred and his rat-fink soul can no longer hide behind bravado and a cheap, China-made ballcap, petty shows of disrespect, such as this, will be on that long list of sins he has to answer for.