Trump Doesn’t Mention John McCain At All During Speech For Defense Bill Named After Senator

President Donald Trump traveled to Fort Drum Monday afternoon to deliver a speech to the troops prior to signing a #716 billion defense bill formally named the ‘John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2019.’

However, despite the defense bill being named for the longtime Arizona senator one-time Republican presidential nominee, the president didn’t utter McCain’s name once during his pre-signing remarks. Not one mention, even though he bragged about the military spending bill over and over.

The ailing McCain, who is currently battling brain cancer and has spent most of his time away from Washington this year, has been one of the president’s loudest Republican critics these past couple of years. Recently, the Arizona lawmaker lit into Trump over his press conference in Helsinki following the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”

Meanwhile, Trump hasn’t forgiven McCain for voting against the GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill, frequently referencing the senator’s thumbs-down vote during his rallies while encouraging his supporters to boo the cancer-stricken lawmaker. So perhaps we should pat Trump on his back for not going that route in his speech to the troops.

Following the speech, CNN’s Brooke Baldwin and Kevin Liptak discussed Trump’s speech and Liptak noted how McCain was a leading proponent of getting the bill passed.

“But the president, of course, sustained this ongoing feud with McCain going back to his campaign,” Liptak noted. “He alludes to him, not by name, but alludes to him at nearly every campaign rally he is at making mention the no vote McCain cast on the proposed Obamacare overhaul. he has questioned whether he was a war hero since he was captured. perhaps it is not surprising that the president didn’t mention his name.”

Watch the clip above, via CNN.