Donald Trump Signs Defense Bill Named For John McCain – But Doesn’t Acknowledge McCain

On Monday, President Donald Trump signed the 2019 defense policy bill that bears the name of his Republican nemesis John McCain without to mention its namesake.

The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 will boost military pay by 2.6% and add 35 M-1 tanks, 77 joint strike fighters and 13 combat ships at a cost of $716 billion. Service members will get their largest increase in nine years. The bill also authorizes billions of dollars for military construction, including for family housing.

“Hopefully, we’ll be so strong we’ll never have to use it. But if we ever did, nobody has a chance,” the president said.

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Trump and McCain, who is battling brain cancer at home in Arizona, are engaged in a long-running feud that dates to Trump’s 2016 presidential run. During his election campaign, Trump declared that McCain, who was a prisoner of war for more than five years in Vietnam, was not a war hero, saying he liked “people that weren’t captured.” The president has publicly blamed McCain for defeating the Republican health care bill last year. Trump referred to that episode later Monday at a campaign event.

“For those asking did I expect Trump to be an asshole today,” former McCain speechwriter Mark Salter said on Twitter. “No more than I expected it to be Monday.”

On Monday, McCain expressed pride in the bill signing in a statement he issued afterward on Twitter. “I’m proud the NDAA is now law & humbled Congress chose to designate it in my name.”

His wife, Cindy McCain, meanwhile, retweeted a tweet from CBS News that noted Trump had neglected to mention McCain at the signing.

Article by Steven Abendroth