“Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country,” Trump wrote in the four-paragraph statement, which dealt mainly in the logistical details he’d approved for the week-long remembrance ceremonies.
After facing criticism for raising the flags at the White House to full-staff after lowering them on Saturday, Trump said he’d approved them lowered again.
He also wrote that he asked Vice President Mike Pence to deliver remarks at a ceremony celebrating McCain’s life in the US Capitol on Friday.

And he listed the officials — including chief of staff John Kelly, Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser John Bolton — he had tasked with representing the administration at funeral services.
Asked what had changed and why the proclamation was issued Monday, press secretary Sarah Sanders would only say this was the “President’s decision to do and the statement speaks for itself.”
It was a more robust effort at commemorating the late lawmaker than Trump offered on Sunday and for most of Monday. During a string of appearances before reporters, the President maintained his silence, choosing to ignore questions about the late Arizona Republican.
Questioned whether he believed McCain — a former Navy pilot who was shot down over Vietnam — was a hero, Trump remained stone-faced behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office after announcing a trade breakthrough with Mexico.
Later, walking along the Rose Garden toward the Oval Office with his Kenyan counterpart, he stared straight ahead when asked for any thoughts on the late lawmaker.
Once inside, he ignored questions again while White House press aides shouted over reporters who were inquiring about McCain.
Moments later in the Cabinet Room, a similar scene played out.
“Thank you very much,” Trump said after the questions continued coming.
As he bid farewell to President Uhuru Kenyatta at the West Wing, the President again declined to answer when pitched a question on McCain.

It amounted to a deafening silence for a President who openly feuded with McCain, even as the senator was dying from brain cancer. Trump sent a cursory tweet on Saturday — “My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!” — but did not offer any words about the man himself.
A more fulsome statement had been prepared for Trump, but it was never released. And a presidential proclamation that would require flags on federal buildings lowered to half-staff was sent on Monday afternoon, almost two days after McCain’s death.
That’s left Trump the odd man out in a capital city overflowing with remembrances of the onetime Republican standard-bearer.
Even Trump’s own daughter, now acting as his White House senior adviser, was more effusive in her description of McCain.
“The nation is united in its grief and the world mourns the loss of a true hero and a great statesman,” she said during remarks in Washington.

Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life of service in uniform and service in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.

I’ve often observed that I’m the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I’ve loved my life, all of it. I’ve had experiences, adventures, friendships enough for 10 satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anybody else’s.

I owe this satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes — liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people — brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but are enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.

Fellow Americans, that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest Republic, a nation of ideals — not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history, and we have acquired great wealth and great power in the process.

We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals rather than trust them to be the great force for change they’ve always been. We are 325 million opinionated vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country, we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.

Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening. I feel it powerfully still. Do not despair of our present difficulties. We believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit, we never surrender, we never hide from history. We make history. Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you and God bless America.”

Conclusion:

“What an ingrate I would be to curse the fate that concludes the blessed life I’ve led. I prefer to give thanks for those blessings, and my love to the people who blessed me with theirs. The bell tolls for me. I knew it would. So I tried, as best I could, to stay a ‘part of the main.‘

“I hope those who mourn my passing, and even those who don’t, will celebrate as I celebrate a happy life lived in imperfect service to a country made of ideals, whose continued service is the hope of the world. And I wish all of you great adventures, good company, and lives as lucky as mine.”

H/T: politico