Trump – The Great Uninvited
Ken Burns’ 10-part documentary series “The Vietnam War” aired last September on PBS.
It was of great interest to me, having spent a year at Danang Air Base between 1969 and ’70.
In Episode 5, the viewing audience was taken to the prison facility known as The Hanoi Hilton, where we saw an interview with one of its prisoners – Lt. Commander John McCain.
McCain answered questions that were being asked by one of his Vietnamese captors.
“I was hit by either a missile or anti-aircraft fire,” he said as he was filmed laying on his back – apparently unable to move of his own accord.
“I ejected and broke my leg and both arms and went into a lake. And I was picked up by some North Vietnamese and taken to the hospital where I almost died,” McCain said.
Before he was released, he would eventually spend five and a half years there.
He could have been released sooner, but he refused to leave the prison without being accompanied by his fellow POWs.
By pure coincidence, after Episode 5 ended that night, I flipped to CNN, where President Trump was giving one of his nastier speeches.
One of his foils was John McCain, who’d cast the no vote that dashed Trump’s hopes to end Obamacare.
“John McCain came in and he went thumbs down at 3:00 in the morning. (Booing) Oh, do I know so much folks, I could tell you. It was sad,” Trump beamed.
Here’s what’s really sad.
John McCain had been a living profile in courage.
Trump was being a garden-variety coward.
McCain had served honorably in defense of his country – and in ways few Americans could ever fathom.
Trump had been a serial draft-dodger.
Even after it was announced that McCain was suffering from terminal cancer, Trump still blamed him for his biggest legislative defeat.
It’s no wonder that after McCain died last week, it was revealed that he requested Trump not be invited to his funeral.
He did, however, make sure that two of his former competitors, presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama would be asked to give eulogies.
What must it be like to get uninvited from a funeral?
It wasn’t the first time Trump was omitted from the list of celebrants at a great American’s funeral.
Last April, when former First Lady Barbara Bush died, ex-presidents Obama, Clinton and, of course, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush were there.
But not Donald Trump.
It may have had something to do with his vicious treatment of Jeb Bush during the 2016 presidential campaign.
In February of that year, Mrs. Bush said of Trump, “He doesn’t give many answers to how he would solve problems. He sort of makes faces and says insulting things.”
Then she really lowered the boom. “I’m sick of him,” she concluded.
Seems like inviting Trump to any funeral would be in anybody’s best interest.
He doesn’t really like to make appearances at places where he can’t become the center of attention.
There aren’t many bereaved families out there who’d like to hear Mr. Trump brag about his poll numbers while their loved one lies in state.
The royals seems to have dodged a controversy with their recent royal wedding.
Instead of not inviting Trump to the wedding, they figured it would be better not to invite any heads-of-state.
There’s some speculation that Trump isn’t anybody’s favorite in the house of Windsor, because months after Lady Diana died, Trump appeared on Howard Stern’s radio show, and he publicly claimed that he could have had sex with her.
No wonder, her son, Harry, wouldn’t want to have him at his wedding.
Besides, in 2015 it was reported that Trump had even made Diana feel as if he was stalking her in the 1990’s.
She even went so far as to tell a friend, “What am I going to do? He gives me the creeps.”
If he keeps this stuff up, he probably won’t even get invited to his own funeral.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.