Ms. Trump was asked to attend earlier in the week by Senator Lindsey Graham, a close friend of Mr. McCain’s who had cleared his invitation with the senator’s widow, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Mr. Graham invited Ms. Trump after she expressed her condolences to him during a meeting on Capitol Hill this week.
Her father continued to tweet during the service, switching his focus to Canada and the North American Free Trade Agreement, threatening to exclude Canada from a final deal and insisting that he saw no political need to accommodate the Canadians. Mr. Trump also warned Congress, which has final say over trade deals, not to interfere and said that he would be happy to just terminate Nafta altogether. It remains a matter of debate as to whether Mr. Trump has the authority to do that on his own.
As Mr. Trump tweeted, onlookers outside the cathedral lined up along the streets, and pointed through the wrought-iron fences. They identified the politicians streaming in, lifting their children on their shoulders for a better look. And several took note of a difference they saw between Mr. Trump’s unpredictable approach to politics and the senator who stayed steadfast to his ideals.
“He’s almost a thing of the past,” said Boyd Lewis, 61, a Democrat from Washington, as he anchored his dog leash on the fence and peered up to the cathedral doors. “Today, the lack of civility, lack of integrity coming out of the White House — McCain was a great soul, not a baseless demigod.”
Inside the cathedral, it was Meghan McCain, the senator’s daughter, who made the contrast most explicit. As she approached the dais, the first speaker in the service, Ms. McCain delivered a pointed condemnation of Mr. Trump’s policies, seizing on his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” in her emotional eulogy.
“The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again,” Ms. McCain, who has frequently delivered raw rebukes of Trump-era politics in recent months, said as applause rang out in the cathedral, “because America was always great.”
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