A former Homeland Security official who notably wrote an “anonymous” op-ed against Donald Trump’s first term has explained why he decided to quit after the president’s response to the death of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2018.
Miles Taylor — in a “CNN NewsNight” segment on Trump’s gleeful reaction to the death of ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller — responded to GOP consultant Brad Todd’s attempt to defend the president, who used Charlie Kirk’s memorial service to declare that he hates his foes and doesn’t “want the best for them.”
Taylor called Trump’s comments on Mueller’s death “so unsurprising” before looking back on the White House’s brief tribute to McCain when it raised the U.S. flag less than two days after the U.S. senator’s death following his battle with brain cancer.
The administration faced backlash from veterans groups at the time before Trump begrudgingly ordered the flag to be lowered to half-staff again.
“I don’t care if you agreed with John McCain or disagreed. It didn’t matter. Like Bob Mueller, he served this country in uniform,” said Taylor of McCain and Mueller, both decorated military veterans with long histories of public service.
The president later used a 2023 book to complain that McCain had “the world’s longest funeral.”
“Much like his wars, it never ended,” wrote the president, who once claimed that McCain was “not a war hero” because he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Trump famously skipped McCain’s 2018 funeral, at the request of the family.
Following McCain’s death, Taylor claimed that Trump tried to call officials from “the other side of the world” in Australia to “raise the flags back up” despite them being at half-staff across America.
Taylor stressed that McCain deserved to be honored in such a way.
“For the president of the United States to be so petty, so small and petty, to tell us to raise the flags back up in an act of active dishonor, tells you everything you need to know about that man and his lack of integrity and character,” he said.
