Top White House officials on Sunday downplayed the furor over an effort to hide the USS John S. McCain from view when President Trump visited Japan over Memorial Day, blaming the incident on the media and an unnamed “23- or 24-year-old” staffer who asked a perfectly valid question.
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said the entire incident has been overblown. His comments came just hours after the Pentagon admonished the White House military office to stop politicizing the armed forces.
“The president didn’t know about it. I didn’t know about it,” Mr. Mulvaney said. “We think it’s much ado about nothing.”
Pressed on the disconnect between the White House, which has brushed off the controversy, and the uproar across Washington and inside the Defense Department, Mr. Mulvaney suggested that a conversation about whether to hide the USS McCain was appropriate. Mr. Trump had a longstanding feud with the late Sen. John McCain, for whom the ship is partly named.
“If a 23- or -24-year-old says, ’Look, is it really a good idea for this ship to be in the background?’ That is not an unreasonable question to have,” he said. “And it’s certainly not something that takes up two minutes of national television on Sunday.”
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters over the weekend that the Navy took no action to fulfill the White House’s request.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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