Former DHS Official: Trump Tried to Reverse Order Lowering Flags for John McCain

Former Homeland Security official Miles Taylor has said President Donald Trump tried to reverse an order lowering flags to half-staff to honor the late Senator John McCain. Taylor gave an interview to the New York Times in the wake of a major story about Trump disparaging the military.

Taylor said he was contacted while on a counter-terrorism trip to Australia at the time McCain, a veteran Republican, had died.

“I get someone from the White House, a senior person there, who calls and says, ‘What is going on with the flags? The president is upset, this has gone out too soon and he doesn’t want it to happen,'” Taylor said.

Taylor claimed the White House had lowered the flags without authorization and that DHS later issued an order on the matter to all federal buildings. His implication is that Trump sought to rescind the order to fly the flags at half-staff.

“They never ended up giving us that order, but the intimation I got was, ‘This shouldn’t have happened,'” he said.

According to The Atlantic, when McCain died Trump remarked “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral.” He also reacted angrily to the lowering of the flags: “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser.”

The continued reporting and criticism surrounding Trump’s comments about McCain and the military more generally is becoming an increasing problem for the administration.