Meghan McCain says Trump won't let her grieve, obsessed he won't be 'great man' like her father

Meghan McCain reacts to a White House directive
Meghan McCain reacts to a White House directive to cover-up the name on USS McCain from president's view while in Japan: "When you repeatedly are attacking my father and war heroes, it creates a culture in the military where people are clearly fearful to Copyright The View ABC
Copyright The View ABC
By Dareh Gregorian with NBC News Politics
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McCain spoke out after reports the White House ordered the USS John S. McCain to be "out of sight" during Trump's visit to Japan.

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Meghan McCain said Thursday that President Donald Trump is making her grieving process over her father John McCain's death "impossible" because he "is so obsessed with the fact that he's never going to be a great man" like the late war hero.

McCain spoke out on ABC's "The View" after reports the White House ordered the USS John S. McCain to be kept "out of sight" during Trump's Memorial Day weekend visit to Japan. Trump told reporters on Thursdaythat he hadn't known about the directive, but said whoever did it was "well-meaning." He also added he was not a fan of the late Arizona senator in "any way, shape or form" — something he's continued to stress since McCain died last year.

McCain said on the show that Trump was putting people in the military in "horrific situations," creating "a culture in the military where people are clearly fearful to show my father's name in one way or another."

And, she said, his words have hurt her personally.

"There's a lot of criticism towards me in the media across the board of how often I speak of my father, how I grieve, how I do it publicly," McCain said on the talk show. "But it's impossible to go through the grief process when my father has been dead 10 months is constantly in the news cycle because the president is so obsessed with the fact that he's never going to be a great man like he was."

"It's a bizarre way to grieve," she said. "It's a bizarre way to say goodbye to my dad because it's so omnipresent in politics and not like in a way like we're honoring him, in the way that you're weaponizing his legacy in the way you want. So I just want that — please have a little more compassion. This is very hard."

John McCain died after a year-long battle with brain cancer last year. Trump criticized the former Republican presidential nominee during the 2016 election cycle, including notoriously saying of the Vietnam veteran, who was held captive in North Vietnam for more than five years, "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured."

Sen. McCain also butted heads with Trump after he entered the White House, and Trump was enraged when McCain torpedoed the Republicans' attempt to ram through a partial repeal of Obamacare, a vote Trump mentioned again on Thursday.

Meghan McCain said the frequent digs have been difficult to deal with.

"I try to put on a game face every day, and I try and be as stoic as possible," she said Thursday. "But grief is tricky, and I'm still sad. And I'm sorry if nine months in is not enough for people for me to move on. But when Trump is doing this, it makes it this much more complicated."

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