Good Tuesday morning, I'm Jake Sherman, and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing, sponsored by Morgan Stanley.

And I'm Anna Palmer.

Last night, while sitting with evangelical leaders, President Donald Trump finally addressed Senator John McCain's death.

He said, our hearts and prayers are going to the family of Senator John McCain.

We very much appreciate everything

that Senator McCain has done for our country. In reality, Trump has already made this story about

him. His relative silence and flip-flopping on the flag has kept Washington, and particularly

the media, on edge. Any president would have just lowered the flag to half staff

for the week, issued an effusive statement, and moved on. Trump is making plain what we already knew.

He never much like McCain, and he's not really concerned about what anyone thinks about his

behavior. Trump seems fully confident that his supporters haven't cared for McCain in any way since

2008.

When they concluded his constituency was mostly reporters and middle-of-the-road Republicans.

In some ways, Trump's candidacy and presidency is a direct response to the candidacies of McCain and Mitt Romney.

Here's a thought from John Harris.

McCain is deeply admired for his military virtues.

But for two generations, politicians who have

represented those virtues haven't done well in presidential politics. Let's start with Reagan,

who spent World War II in Hollywood, then led the conservative movement at a time when true

military experience was still the norm at the top ranks of national politics.

For the past quarter century, the presidency has been held by people who either took steps to avoid Vietnam service,

think Clinton, Bush, or Trump, or too young to serve, i.e. Obama.

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