Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close friend of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), reportedly invited Ivanka Trump to McCain’s funeral in Washington on Saturday.
Graham invited Trump after she offered him her condolences this week during a meeting on Capitol Hill, The New York Times reported. A White House official who spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity said Graham cleared Trump’s invitation with McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain.
{mosads}Before his death, McCain specifically requested Trump’s father, President Trump, not be invited to attend his funeral.
McCain and the president frequently clashed during his administration and on the campaign trail prior to Trump’s election.
Shortly after announcing his candidacy, Trump denounced McCain’s service in the Vietnam War, famously saying “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than five years.
Trump also repeatedly lashed out at McCain for breaking with his party last year to vote against a GOP repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
McCain, in turn, criticized many of the president’s policies on foreign and domestic issues, as well as his rhetoric toward the media.
McCain died on Aug. 25 at age 81, a year after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was widely regarded as a “maverick” and “hero” by those across the political spectrum during his decades-long career as a senator.
The president tweeted about trade and special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible ties between his campaign and Russia during McCain’s funeral on Saturday morning. He spent Saturday afternoon at his golf club in Northern Virginia.