Chief failed, used hallowed ground to fuel feud

Donald Trump has finally managed to shock himself — realizing that he was being an unpresidential jerk by keeping the White House flag at halfstaff for the late Sen. John McCain for less than 48 hours.

At a historic moment in U.S. history, Trump failed America and once again proved how petty he really is. The flag was all the way up the pole most of the day yesterday. But after massive pressure from both sides, the flag was lowered once again to half-staff in the late afternoon.

McCain is an American hero who dedicated his life to his country and that flag at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is not Trump’s flag.

It is our flag.

It is the flag McCain fought for all those years while he was tortured as a prisoner of war. It is the flag he defended during his three decades in Washington.

If Trump wants his flags flying high at all of his golf courses, that is his choice, but only lowering the flag over the White House for a day was disgraceful.

Trump’s brief tweeted statement about McCain’s passing is not the problem. Using hallowed American ground to continue his feud with a dead man is.

The rift began when Trump inappropriately insulted McCain’s service to our country — which included enduring years of torture in a North Vietnamese prison after his Navy jet was shot down.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said at a Republican presidential forum in 2015. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

McCain, meanwhile, remained critical of Trump to the end, calling his policies “half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.”

No one expects false statements of sorrow or respect from Trump. But finally, he has been forced to show a modicum of presidential grace.

McCain may be gone but his support from across the country is clear.

And, for once, America was able to force the president’s hand and have him do the right thing.