Politicians and presidents from across the political divide have paid tribute to Senator John McCain and his decades of service following his death at the age of 81.
The former presidential candidate and war hero died on Saturday after a year-long battle with brain cancer.
His family said he made the decision to halt medical treatment for his condition on Friday, revealing that ‘the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict’.
In 2015, Trump caused outrage when he said he was ‘not a war hero.’
He said: ‘He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.’
Last night, he said in a brief statement on Twitter that ‘hearts and prayers’ and his ‘deepest sympathies and respect’ were with the McCain family.
Barack Obama, who triumphed over Mr McCain in the 2008 election, said that despite their differences, Mr McCain and he shared a ‘fidelity to something higher the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed’.
Mr Obama said the two political opponents ‘saw our political battles, even, as a privilege, something noble, an opportunity to serve as stewards of those high ideals at home, and to advance them around the world’.
First lady Melania Trump thanked Mr McCain for his service to the nation, which included six terms in the Senate, right up until his death.
