JOHN MCCAIN/SENATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “In the Senate chamber on Monday [8-27-18], John McCain’s desk was draped in black and topped with a vase of white roses. The majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, rose to praise Mr. McCain as a colleague and hero who ‘spotlighted many of our highest values.’ Outside, an impromptu memorial took shape as the flags over Capitol Hill flew at half-staff. In only one building in Washington were Mr. McCain’s legacy and achievements greeted with anything like ambivalence: the White House. President Trump, under enormous public and private pressure, finally issued a proclamation of praise for Mr. McCain on Monday afternoon, two days after the senator’s death, and ordered the flag to be flown at half-staff seemingly in the only place it wasn’t already, the presidential complex. The day had begun with the remarkable sight of the flag flying atop the White House’s flagpole, while just beyond the building, at the Washington Monument, others fluttered midway down the poles that circle the obelisk. The president stubbornly refused repeated requests from officials as senior as Vice President Mike Pence and John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, to acknowledge Mr. McCain’s death with a formal and unifying statement, according to four administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.”
–Katie Rogers, Nicholas Fandos and Maggie Haberman, “Trump Relents Under Pressure, Offering ‘Respect’ to McCain,” The New York Times online, August 27, 2018