I wish Trump had chosen better words. I think that John McCain as a POW actually did demonstrate heroism at times.
But there is a larger point, which Trump could have made better than he did, which is that we no longer value true heroism, and that we constantly call things heroic that are not.
Getting shot by a jihadi while you are unarmed is not heroic. Shoveling shit in Louisiana (to borrow a phrase, mods please allow it this once) is not heroic. Putting water balloons in your chest and dressing up as a woman is not heroic.
For some reason, between WW II and Vietnam we got all twisted up about the “hero” thing, and we still haven’t got it straight. If that’s what Trump was saying, it needed to be said.
Well put, Jim Noble. Concise and extremely well-put.It’s a fact though that there are lots of points Trump has made that “he could have made better than he did”.He MUST have advisers that could assess the ongoing campaign, see where Trump himself has thrown stones in his own path, and keep him from doing the same going forward. But can Trump’s ego and personality ever allow a more carefully “crafted” public persona as a legit candidate? This would seem to be a necessity. It’s one thing to speak blunt truths, and another to provide the media with fodder they don’t even have to rake up, to continue to take him down and discredit him.