Donald Trump’s disdain for John McCain costs him in Arizona

John McCain, left, never disparaged Donald Trump as President. He was too loyal a Republican. But his widow, Cindy, took a stand against the commander-in-chief over his treatment of her husband.

Donald Trump used to make jokes about the size of his hands. They’re small, he agreed, but the rest of him? Big!

And now his big mouth has gone and cost him if not the presidency, then at least the state of Arizona. How so?

Trump had a strange obsession, maybe even an irrational hatred, of one of Arizona’s favourite sons, John McCain.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in 2015 while running for the Republican nomination for president. “He was captured … I like people who weren’t captured.” 

Some say he was trying to be funny but no. It was much closer to the bone than that.

Trump was jealous of the esteem in which McCain was held.

He didn’t quite get it, but on some level, he also knew that whatever office he held — up to and including that of Commander-in-Chief — he would always be McCain’s subordinate.

That is, of course, because he’s an inferior character in every way, a drudge by comparison. When Trump mocks American war heroes, it comes from a place of self-loathing. He avoided Vietnam.

The contrast between his own and McCain’s family could not be greater, either. John’s mother, Roberta, born just months before the Titanic sailed, only died last month, aged 108.

Her husband, John S. McCain Jr, was a four-star admiral who was a commander of US forces in the Pacific theatre during the Vietnam War. When their son was shot down and taken prisoner, in 1967, they knew that he would be a prize; they knew also that he would be tortured. They bore it in silence, with prayer.

Upon his return to the US, McCain made his way to Arizona, where he became a senator.

Besides the house in Phoenix, he had a ranch at the end of a dirt road in a little village called Cornville, overlooking Oak Creek. He loved it there. Before Cornville, he once said, he’d never had a steady home. He was born on a base in Panama and attended 20 schools. Now he had a table at the local restaurant. He liked to sit there, watching birds, wearing slacks and a baseball cap. He sat with no security.

Can you imagine Trump doing the same?

McCain never disparaged Trump as president. He was too loyal a Republican. But this year, his widow took a stand.

When John died of brain cancer in 2018, Cindy McCain did not invite Trump to the funeral.

In September, she announced her support for Joe Biden.

John McCain had many great friends across the political divide, and she always admired that about her man.

Of course Trump attacked her, saying: “I hardly know Cindy McCain other than having put her on a committee at her husband’s request … Never a fan of John. Cindy can have Sleepy Joe!”

Biden has now seized the state’s 11 electoral votes, taking Arizona for the Democrats for the first time in 24 years.

And of course we won’t ever know how many of those votes turned blue in memory of John McCain. But nor will Trump ever know what a difference a little shush, never mind a little respect, might have made.