Trump is mocking McCain — and the American people

John McCain spent 51⁄2 years in a North Vietnamese prisoner-ofwar camp. He is — with grit and grace and a sense of humor — fighting an aggressive form of brain cancer.

I’d guess he’s not bothered one bit, not one iota, by an Axios report that President Donald Trump has been privately mocking him and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The report says Trump imitates the thumbs-down gesture McCain used to kill the Republicans’ repeal of “Obamacare.” The president also apparently ridicules McConnell with an imitation.

This is the leader of the free world we’re talking about.

It’s not new, of course. During the campaign, Trump mocked reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a congenital condition affecting the joints, called arthrogryposis.

Trump tried to deny it, but video of the event made it obvious.

He was like a child who is caught red-handed but continues to profess his innocence.

It’s hardly the kind of behavior you’d wish to see from a grown-up, but it didn’t prevent him from being elected. So I guess he figures it’s no big deal to keep doing it.

I can’t imagine it bothers McCain, other than to remind him how dangerous it is for such a person to be president.

Still, it’s kid stuff, the kind of juvenile behavior easily dismissed by reciting the old “Sticks and stones may break my bones” jingle.

It’s rude, and from the leader of the free world, it’s disgusting, but as far as hurting McCain … ha!

Besides, there are men and women this week who are being mocked, genuinely and harmfully, by the president.

Their names are … you. Trump is putting forth a tax plan that he says will benefit regular people.

It won’t. Not as presented so far, anyway.

“It’s not good for me, believe me,” Trump said Wednesday.

Except it is. Any number of analysts have pointed out that Trump’s plan would save him and his businesses millions and millions of dollars.

“We’re targeting relief to working families,” Trump said. “We will make sure benefits are focused on the middle class, the working men and women, not the highest-income earners.” Again, no.

The tax plan as presented will cut taxes for corporations and the country’s wealthiest individuals. It would do so in such a way that the nation will go even further into debt.

If that were to happen, the Republicans who control Congress would say we must cut spending. It would give them the opportunity to attack programs they have been itching to cut for years, programs such as Medicare and others that benefit regular working people.

You.

Now, that’s mocking.