Trump's White House wanted the US Navy to hide a warship named after John McCain when the president visited Japan in 2019, emails show

Former President Donald Trump (L) and the USS John S. McCain at the U.S. Naval base in Yokosuka, Japan (R)..

Brandon Bell/Getty Images, Eugene Hoshiko/AP

• Trump's White House requested the USS John S. McCain be kept "out of sight" from the president.
• Newly obtained emails reveal the request, which was made before Trump visited a US Navy base in Japan.
• The former president had a long-running feud with the Arizona senator.

Donald Trump's White House asked officials to keep a warship named after the late Sen. John McCain out of sight when he visited a US Navy base in Japan in 2019, according to emails newly obtained by Bloomberg.

In the emails, a US Indo-Pacific Command staffer told the US Navy: "USS John McCain needs to be out of sight." Another email asked to "please confirm" that the request would be "satisfied."

The USS John S. McCain was named for the late senator, his father, and grandfather, all veterans of the Navy.

Navy officials responded by using a "banner" and "paint scaffolding" to partially obscure the ship's name, according to the emails. 

Military officials appeared to be shocked by the request. "This just makes me sad," one said. "I could see that becoming a Tweet..." said another email.

At the time, Trump denied having requested to keep the ship out of sight and said it must have been done by a "well-meaning person" who knew he didn't like McCain.

The emails, obtained by Bloomberg reporter Jason Leopold through a Freedom of Information Act request, corroborate the previous reporting by The Wall Street Journal about the request.

Images published by The Journal at the time showed tarp covering the ship's name on Friday. The paper reported that this was removed the following day, ahead of the presidential visit, and that a barge later blocked the name but was also moved.

The paper reported that the ship's sailors, who typically wear caps bearing its name, were also given the day off during Trump's visit.

Then-Navy Chief of Information Rear Adm. Charlie Brown denied that the ship had been hidden from view during Trump's visit and did not acknowledge that its name had at all been obscured.

"The name of USS John S. McCain was not obscured during the POTUS visit to Yokosuka on Memorial Day. The Navy is proud of that ship, its crew, its namesake and its heritage," Brown said in a tweet in May 2019. 

The emails redact almost all of the emails from the White House, but the responses appear to reveal that the directive to hide the ship did come directly from it.

The former president had a long-running feud with the Arizona senator, who was an outspoken critic of Trump from the start of his candidacy and throughout his presidency.

 

The late Sen. John McCain.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Trump frequently attacked McCain and denigrated his war service, stating he did not believe he was a war hero as he was held as a prisoner of war for years in Vietnam.

Trump avoided being drafted during the Vietnam War by receiving five draft deferments, four as a student and one medical deferment for a bone spur in his foot. McCain later appeared to cast aspersions on this, commenting on wealthy people using alleged ailments like bone spurs to draft dodge.

The former president has continued to attack the senator even after his death from brain cancer in 2018.

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