GETTING UGLY AGAIN

Trump Threatens McCain: ‘I Fight Back and It Won’t Be Pretty’

In response to the senator bashing the president’s “half-baked nationalism.”

President Trump on Tuesday threatened Sen. John McCain, who on Monday railed against the president’s “half-baked nationalism.” The president was asked by a talk-radio host about the Arizona Republican’s warning against Trump’s brand of “spurious nationalism... cooked up by people who had rather find scapegoats than solve problems.” Trump’s response: “People have to be careful because at some point I fight back. You know, I’m being very nice. I’m being very, very nice. But at some point I fight back and it won’t be pretty.” Trump has a long history of throwing ugly barbs at the long-time Republican lawmaker. During the 2016 GOP primaries, then-candidate Trump dismissed McCain’s experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, saying: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”