#JohnMcCainDay trends on Trump’s 73rd birthday

Opponents of President Trump marked his 73rd birthday by making #JohnMcCainDay trend on Twitter to note the feud between the president and the late Republican senator. 

Trump was famously critical of McCain, a longtime senator from Arizona and a veteran of the Vietnam War who was held as a prisoner for five years.

Trump said during the 2016 campaign that McCain was not a war hero because he prefers “people who weren’t captured” and repeatedly slammed McCain for his vote against a GOP plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, continuing his critiques even after McCain’s death.

{mosads}“I was never a fan of John McCain, and I never will be,” Trump told reporters in March.

Reports also surfaced last month that the White House asked the Navy to make sure that a warship named after McCain’s father and grandfather would be “out of sight” of the president during a visit to Japan.

The viral hashtag was first started by Andy Lassner, the executive producer of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” who frequently bashes the White House online.

“Honoring an American hero today. Let’s celebrate @realDonaldTrump’s birthday today by having #JohnMcCainDay trend. I’m sure this would mean a lot to patriot like Donald Trump,” he tweeted Friday morning.

Honoring an American hero today.

Let’s celebrate @realDonaldTrump’s birthday today by having #JohnMcCainDay trend.

I’m sure this would mean a lot to patriot like Donald Trump. #JohnMcCainDay

— andy lassner (@andylassner) June 14, 2019

A petition on Change.org was also started to mark June 14, which besides the president’s birthday is Flag Day, as “John McCain Day.”