Jackson Sun columnist Leonard Pitts Jr suggests to Donald Trump in an open letter to the president that he would do well to consider what his own funeral will be like and how his legacy will be remembered, considering how “churlishly” he behaved following John McCain’s death.
Pitts encourages Trump to take a good, hard look at the way he’s behaved and to consider how his own funeral might shake out.
“Dear Donald Trump: Do you ever think about your own funeral?”
As you certainly remember, Trump’s behavior after the death of Arizona Senator John McCain has been harshly criticized, to put it mildly. The two continually butted heads, with Trump often hurling personal insults at the Vietnam veteran and POW.
After the Senator died of brain cancer, Trump took a while – too long, by some measures – to issue a statement. He also took too long – again, by some measures – to order the flag above the White House to half-staff. And of course, Trump was famously asked not to attend the late Senator’s funeral…by Senator McCain himself months before he died.
Pitts then goes on to note that McCain wasn’t a perfect man – indeed, he was far from it. He often made offhand remarks that didn’t go over well. He sometimes made mistakes in judgment. But those things tend to be overlooked in eulogies.
For Trump, however, his mistakes are too unforgivable to be overlooked in death, writes Pitts. What’s more, Trump has for so long prided himself on bucking tradition and doing things his own way that it almost invites criticism in death.
“As you have been a breaker of norms in so many other ways, you will likely be one in death.”
Pitts first goes on to speculate about who would even attend Trump’s funeral, suggesting Vladimir Putin and Kid Rock as likely attendees.
“With so many of your friends lining up to testify against you, who will even be left to mourn, outside of your kids and whomever you happen to be married to at the time? Will Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort be out on parole by then? Will Don Jr.?”
Pitts also jokingly suggests that perhaps Stormy Daniels will be there, signing autographs and posing for selfies. Or perhaps Trump’s former spokesman Sean Spicer, who famously said that Trump’s inauguration crowd was the largest in history, will try to say that the crowd at his funeral was the largest in history.
“There will be little mourning of the kind we’ve seen for John McCain.”
Pitts concludes by suggesting to Trump that, if he had mustered up even the tiniest bit of decency in light of McCain’s funeral, perhaps someone, somewhere, might find something good to say about Trump in his own eulogy.
