The two men ran for president, McCain in 2008, Trump two terms later, and both are both elderly energetic men. People might imagine they would be more alike, but there is a wide canyon between them. Why has the sitting president had so much trouble with his White House and what could he learn from McCain – if he would listen?
The answer lies not in their similarities, but in their differences. McCain’s grandfather was a career military man, and Trump’s was a grifter selling women, room, and board to the gold miners.
McCain was a Navy fighter pilot, and Trump got five deferments to avoid the Vietnam War. The senator was captured after he was shot down, then tortured for five and a half years, and the president got out of going due to bone-spurs.
Trump jetted around the campaign trail in his own jet, while McCain carried his own bags. Trump has a comb over that makes him an embarrassment in the world. McCain went natural.
The Arizona senator lived a life of service, while the New York rich boy live a playboy existence. McCain lived a life of integrity, honor, and duty. His counterpart lived his life of wealth, women, and song.
Meghan McCain, co-host of The View, is definitely her father’s daughter. She offered more insight into the issue of why Trump might lead a White House with more leaks than a prairie village has holes. On ABC’s The View, she said:
‘My dad’s office, they never had a leaking problem. And you have leaking problems when you’re not loyal to the principal. It’s always a sign of a bad campaign, or a bad candidate, or a bad politician when you have rampant leaking problems, because it shows that you don’t have loyalty to the principal. You’ve got to look in your own house on that one.’
After White House staffer, Kelly Sadler, made fun of John McCain’s diagnosis of brain cancer, Trump had a strange response. He did not fire Sadler, even though it was such an awful thing to say. Instead, he threatened those who leaked the story.
The staffer said that her coworkers did not need to worry about McCain’s voice against Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel. She said:
‘(It) doesn’t matter, (because) he’s dying anyway.’
Haspel supervised a black ops prison in Indonesia that was responsible for torturing prisoners captured in the early days after 9/11. The staff waterboarded one detainee well over 100 times.
The younger McCain said Sadler phoned her and apologized. When McCain said that the staffer should publicly apologize, Sadler agreed — but she has not followed through as of this writing.
The co-host said that Trump should fire Sadler:
‘I don’t understand what kind of environment you’re working in when that would be acceptable and then you could come to work the next day and still have a job.’
Both Democrats and Republicans have called on the White House, Trump, or Sadler to apologize. Instead, the Trump administration chose to focus on the White House leaks.
Trump does not like to be asked or told what to do. He sent out a blistering tweet that called leakers “traitors.”
That summed up the difference between McCain and Trump. The man sitting in the Oval Office’s life is all about him – a trivial life, while the senator’s life is all about us – he lives a profound life.
Featured Image via Getty Images/William Thomas Caine.
