Trump in U-turn on McCain tribute

Donald Trump bowed to pressure on Monday to honour the late John McCain, ordering that flags be lowered to half-mast across the country, as the late senator fired a parting shot at the president in a farewell message to the United States.

Trump’s about-face came after he found himself mired in controversy over his rather conspicuous failure to pay tribute to McCain, who died on Saturday at 81 after a year-long battle with brain cancer.

When veterans’ groups launched appeals for a more fitting salute to McCain, a Navy veteran who was imprisoned for more than five years in Vietnam, the Republican leader – who had no love lost for the Arizona senator – blinked.

“Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country,” Trump said in a statement as he ordered the flag atop the White House and elsewhere to fly at half-mast until year-long battle with cancer resulted in top senator dying at weekend McCain’s burial on Sunday.

The White House flag was lowered after McCain’s death on Saturday – but it was once again at the top of the flagpole on Monday morning.

Trump’s initial silence about McCain underscored the isolation of the US leader and fuelled criticism that he is incapable of bringing a divided nation together even as it mourns a man widely seen as an American hero and a political icon.