Trump issues 4-word reply after criticism at McCain, Franklin funerals

In this Sep. 1, 2018 photo, Meghan McCain speaks at a memorial service for her father, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at Washington National Cathedral in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Trump issued a four-word reply Saturday after several speakers at weekend funerals for singer Aretha Franklin and U.S. Sen. John McCain made him a focus of their remarks.

“MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” the president tweeted around 7 p.m. ET.

Earlier Saturday, Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Arizona Republican, had alluded to Trump's slogan during her eulogy for her father, who died of brain cancer at age 81 on Aug. 25.

“The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,” McCain said at a memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington.

“The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.”

— Meghan McCain, daughter of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain

The audience, which included a who’s who of Washington elites, applauded the comment, the Arizona Republic reported.

The late senator, a fervent critic of the president, had requested that Trump not be invited to his funeral. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, however, were in attendance.

Much of the animus between Trump and McCain can be traced to a remark Trump made in July 2015, at an event in Ames, Iowa.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said of McCain, a Navy veteran who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

While mourners attended McCain's memorial service, the president was playing golf at the Trump National Golf Club in Loudoun County, Va.

On Friday in Detroit, singer Stevie Wonder also made reference to Trump's slogan during his tribute to Franklin, the legendary recording artist who died of pancreatic cancer at age 76 on Aug. 16.

Stevie Wonder was just one of several speakers in Detroit who, directly or indirectly, took verbal shots at Trump. (Associated Press)

“What needs to happen today, not only in this nation but throughout the world, is that we need to make love great again,” Wonder said, according to the Hill.

“What needs to happen today, not only in this nation but throughout the world, is that we need to make love great again.”

— Stevie Wonder, speaking at a memorial service for Aretha Franklin

Wonder was just one of several speakers in Detroit who, directly or indirectly, took verbal shots at Trump. Other critics of the president included Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Meanwhile, Katrina Pierson, an adviser to Trump’s campaign, came to the president's defense following the weekend of insults.

“(Donald Trump) ran for @POTUS ONE time and WON! Some people will never recover from that. #SorryNotSorry Yes, #MAGA,” Pierson tweeted.