--- title: Donald Trump Slams John McCain Again at CPAC description: Donald Trump blasted Senator John McCain at CPAC for voting against the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act last summer. canonical: https://time.com/5173162/donald-trump-cpac-john-mccain-obamacare-repeal/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-23T18:37:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:25:17.824Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Still Hasn't Forgiven McCain for Killing Obamacare Repeal og:description: "I don't want to be controversial so I won't use his name" og:url: https://time.com/5173162/donald-trump-cpac-john-mccain-obamacare-repeal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc822304e11ac51b/698928bd096a9482b46a19f0/donald-trump-cpac-2018-mark-peterson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: donald-trump-cpac-2018-mark-peterson og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Still Hasn't Forgiven McCain for Killing Obamacare Repeal twitter:description: "I don't want to be controversial so I won't use his name" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc822304e11ac51b/698928bd096a9482b46a19f0/donald-trump-cpac-2018-mark-peterson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Still Hasn't Forgiven John McCain for Killing Obamacare Repeal > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Feb 23, 2018 6:37 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland on February 23, 2018. President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland on February 23, 2018. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Feb 23, 2018 6:37 PM UTC President Donald Trump has again blasted [Sen. John McCain](http://time.com/5165665/john-mccain-munich-security-conference/) for voting against the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act last summer — but did not once call him by name. “We’re having tremendous plans coming out now, healthcare plans, at a fraction of the cost, that are much better than Obamacare,” Trump said Friday at the [Conservative Political Action Conference](http://time.com/5172792/donald-trump-cpac-speech-campaign/). Then, motioning a “thumbs down,” — which is [what McCain did when he voted against the bill](http://time.com/4878038/john-mccain-vote-video/) last summer — Trump continued, “And except for one senator who came into the room at 3 in the morning and went like that, we could have had health care too.” “Remember — one person walked into a room when he was supposed to go this way,” Trump added, giving a thumbs up sign, “and he walked in and went this way \[thumbs down\] and everyone said, ‘What happened? What was that all about? Who was that?’ I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t want to be controversial so I won’t use his name. What a mess.” McCain was [diagnosed with glioblastoma](http://time.com/5064009/john-mccain-hospitalized-cancer-treatment/), a form of brain cancer, in 2017, and is currently undergoing treatment. He flew in from Arizona just days after his diagnosis for votes on healthcare reform, and made the surprising decision to vote against the bill that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which effectively [killed its chance of becoming law. ](http://time.com/4877796/health-care-senate-john-mccain-susan-collins-lisa-murkowski/) Trump has [criticized McCain before](http://time.com/4993304/john-mccain-donald-trump-feud-remarks/) on this vote, tweeting in September that the Arizona Senator let his state down with his decision. > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/911541328013676544) Trump was harshly rebuked in 2015 when he said the Vietnam veteran, who was taken prisoner during the war, wasn’t a hero because he was captured. “I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said at the time. McCain has also been critical of Trump, although recently that criticism has been veiled, making it obvious who the target is without mentioning the president by name. Last November, for instance, McCain cited high income people who used medically diagnosed “bone spurs” to avoid getting drafted into the Vietnam War, [which is what President Trump did. ](http://time.com/4993304/john-mccain-donald-trump-feud-remarks/) McCain’s daughter Meghan told [Politico](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/07/meghan-mccain-women-rule-podcast-393632) earlier this month that Trump had called her to say he would withhold criticism of her father. “I don’t believe he would go there again,” Meghan McCain told Politico’s “Women Rule” podcast. “I don’t think at this point in his administration it would be beneficial to him in any way.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5173162/donald-trump-cpac-john-mccain-obamacare-repeal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5173162/donald-trump-cpac-john-mccain-obamacare-repeal/"},"headline":"President Trump Still Hasn't Forgiven John McCain for Killing Obamacare Repeal","datePublished":"2018-02-23T18:37:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:25:17.824Z","description":"\"I don't want to be controversial so I won't use his name\"","url":"https://time.com/5173162/donald-trump-cpac-john-mccain-obamacare-repeal/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc822304e11ac51b/698928bd096a9482b46a19f0/donald-trump-cpac-2018-mark-peterson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc822304e11ac51b/698928bd096a9482b46a19f0/donald-trump-cpac-2018-mark-peterson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald-trump-cpac-2018-mark-peterson","caption":"donald-trump-cpac-2018-mark-peterson","creditText":"Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5173162/donald-trump-cpac-john-mccain-obamacare-repeal/","name":"President Trump Still Hasn't Forgiven John McCain for Killing Obamacare Repeal"}}]}] ```