Associated Press/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump speaks to the Ohio Republican Party State Dinner, Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, in Columbus, Ohio.
- President Donald Trump reportedly doesn't regret saying Sen. John McCain was "not a war hero."
- McCain has ended medical treatment for brain cancer, his family announced Friday.
- Amid the outpouring of public support for McCain, Trump has remained noticeably silent. White House officials reportedly said Trump doesn't want to speak out before McCain dies.
President Donald Trump has occasionally told people he doesn't regret his notorious 2015 remark that Sen. John McCain of Arizona was "not a war hero," The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
McCain and his family announced Friday that the senator has ended medical treatment for the brain cancer he has battled for more than a year.
Amid an outpouring of public support from Republicans and Democrats alike, Trump has been noticeably silent about the Arizona Republican. White House officials even told The Post that Trump does not want to talk about McCain before he dies.
Trump has also been disinvited from McCain's funeral, according to a New York Times report in May.
McCain and Trump have had a famously bitter relationship in recent years, and McCain has frequently criticized Trump on a host of issues, ranging from Trump's rhetoric towards immigrants, his decisions on White House personnel, and his most recent behavior on the international stage at July's Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin.
Perhaps the most well-known instance of hostility between the two men came during a campaign event in Iowa more than three years ago, when Trump prompted outrage by saying that McCain's capture during the Vietnam War - during which he was tortured and imprisoned for five years - meant he wasn't a hero.
"He's not a war hero," Trump said. "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured."
Though politicians from both parties condemned the remarks and suggested Trump apologize, he never retracted the statement.