Cindy McCain: Trump’s GOP ‘Not the Party My Husband and I Belonged To’

The widow of former Sen. John McCain, Cindy McCain, says President Trump’s nationalist-populist Republican Party is “not the party” she and her husband “belonged to.”

During an interview with Politico‘s Women Rule podcast, McCain said the party of Trump — centered around a pro-U.S. worker agenda — is not what she and her late husband were a part of.

“We have, on my side of the aisle, on the Republican side, we see a local party in Arizona that’s not functioning well,” McCain said. “And it’s excluding people. And it’s excluding people for the wrong reasons.”

“If you’re not walking the line, then you’re out,” she continued. “That’s just not right. That’s not the party that my husband and I belonged to.”

McCain also seemed to take subtle jabs at Trump’s way of communicating with his supporters, bypassing the establishment media and pundit class.

Newsom declares state of emergency in Orange County as failing chemical tank nears catastrophic explosion

US Army hits 2026 recruiting goals four months early, Pete Hegseth announces at West Point commencement

Breaking: Kyle Busch’s Family Reveals Cause of Death

EXCLUSIVE: Trump-backed military vet mocked for disability ahead of Memorial Day: ‘Most shameful thing’

What One Illinois Town Says About The Current State Of America

Possible Statue of Pharaoh Who Moses May Have Confronted Discovered in Egypt

Sanders-backed gubernatorial hopeful’s past pro-life views clash with current abortion stance

Trump Issues Forceful Defense of His Anti-Weaponization Fund as Senate Republicans Balk

Military families want DOJ to distribute nearly $800M from French cement company found guilty of bribing ISIS

‘Moderate’ Dem’s unearthed ‘deconstruct’ law enforcement comments draw fire from GOP critics

Inside the rise of hardship politics as wealthy Democrats eye 2028

Magnitude 6.0 earthquake rocks Hawaii’s Big Island as Kilauea volcano likely to erupt again in days

Judge Tosses Evidence Against Luigi Mangione

UC Davis fraternity student’s 2001 death ruled a suicide after 29 stab wounds questioned in true crime podcast

Dem Darling Raked In Cash From Donors With Chinese Gov’t, CCP Intel Ties

“I think we’ve seen the end of men like my husband. At least for right now,” McCain said.

“The inability to even discuss issues — differing issues — it’s degenerated into name-calling and Twitter responses, and all of these things that not only do they not help the argument, but they don’t help foster good relationships with people,” McCain said.

While McCain’s husband lost the 2008 presidential election running on the decades-long Republican establishment platform of neoconservative foreign interventionism, extending the Bush-era tax cuts, and amnesty for illegal aliens, Trump swept to victory in 2016 with his “America First” agenda of a travel ban from terrorist-sponsored countries, a promise to bring U.S. troops home, and a commitment to pulling out of multilateral free trade deals and global agreements like TPP and the Paris Climate Accord.

Trump’s economic nationalist platform won him majorities in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — states not won by Republicans in years.

In a March 2019 poll by Harvard/Harris, about three-in-four U.S. voters said they support a nationalist-populist approach to trade, immigration, and foreign policy — that is, tariffs on foreign imports to protect American industries, less immigration, and less foreign intervention overseas.

Last year, former presidential candidate and columnist Pat Buchanan said McCain’s preferred part of former President George W. Bush’s party had “become a Trump party” on all the defining issues of the time.