Embed from Getty Images

I’ll admit it: I didn’t predict that Donald Trump’s public snubbing of John McCain would become such a big deal. People are really outraged about Trump’s juvenile pettiness and lack of respect for an American hero. To those people I say: you realize that Trump is still keeping children in cages, right? You know he’s alienated all of our oldest allies and embarrassed America on the world stage about a million times already, right? You realize he’s a traitor who is doing a foreign leader’s bidding, right? But sure, the flag flying at half-mast is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

As we discussed yesterday, Trump shot down the official White House statement honoring McCain in the days after McCain’s passing. The White House flag flew at half-mast for less than 48 hours, then it was raised to full-mast yesterday morning. People were outraged at the disrespect shown to a war hero like McCain, especially veterans groups. Various veterans groups appealed to White House aides to lower the flag at half mast once again, and hours later on Monday, the flag was lowered again. The White House also issued a statement on McCain where they acknowledged his heroism:

New Trump statement on McCain’s death is still full of shade. pic.twitter.com/pa7NxIrOeh

— Alana Horowitz Satlin (@achorowitz) August 27, 2018

First of all, there is literally no way that Trump wrote this or even glanced at it before it was released (he can’t read). Second of all, I still think that on the scale of Trump Pettiness, this one barely even registers. I actually think the fact that Trump hasn’t hate-tweeted about McCain in death shows that Trump is trying to be *slightly* respectful. I also think Trump is just following what McCain and his family wanted, with regards to Trump’s lack of involvement in the funeral/memorial services. And all of that is hilarious to me – I could easily make the argument that this is Trump’s version of “being respectful to a dead man,” and it’s amazing that THIS is what has outraged everyone. All those good ol’ boys and American Legion dudes are SO MAD at Trump, when this is arguably his most respectful behavior (a low bar, but still).

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty.