--- title: John McCain Worried About U.S. Reverting 'to the 1930s' description: McCain, echoing the sentiments of his Monday night speech, said he is worried the U.S. is reverting to the nationalism of the 1930s. canonical: https://time.com/4986307/john-mccain-donald-trump-1930s-fight-back/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-17T20:23:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:54:00.780Z article:section: Politics og:title: John McCain Is Worried the U.S. Is Going Back 'to the 1930s' og:description: Meantime, President Trump said he may "fight back" og:url: https://time.com/4986307/john-mccain-donald-trump-1930s-fight-back/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbf2d8238721b897/6988e23a096a9492386a00a2/john-mccain-nationalism.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: John McCain Honored With Liberty Medal For A Lifetime Of Service og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John McCain Is Worried the U.S. Is Going Back 'to the 1930s' twitter:description: Meantime, President Trump said he may "fight back" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbf2d8238721b897/6988e23a096a9492386a00a2/john-mccain-nationalism.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John McCain Is Worried the U.S. Is Going Back 'to the 1930s'  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Oct 17, 2017 8:23 PM UTC  PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 16: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) makes remarks after receiving the the 2017 Liberty Medal from former Vice President Joe Biden (not shown) at the National Constitution Center on October 16, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 16: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) makes remarks after receiving the the 2017 Liberty Medal from former Vice President Joe Biden (not shown) at the National Constitution Center on October 16, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.William Thomas Cain—Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Oct 17, 2017 8:23 PM UTC Senator John McCain, echoing the sentiments of his [Monday night speech](http://time.com/4985320/john-mccain-liberty-medal-nationalism-isolationism/) in Philadelphia, said Tuesday that he is worried the United States is reverting to the nationalistic tendencies that characterized the 1930s. Asked about [his speech](http://time.com/4985185/john-mccain-liberty-medal-speech/) at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia Monday, McCain declined to elaborate on whether his criticism of nationalism includes President Trump. “What I was talking about is an environment here of … a reversion of the attitude to the ’30s, which was one of the major reasons we fought World War II,” McCain told reporters at the Capitol. In that speech, McCain did not mention President Trump or anyone in his Administration by name. But, after discussing his years of service, he implicitly seemed to [invoke criticism of the White House](https://medium.com/@SenatorJohnMcCain/remarks-at-the-2017-liberty-medal-ceremony-8d69751a5ac1), slamming what he called “some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.” This ideology, he continued is “as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.” When Trump was asked about McCain’s speech on Tuesday, he seemed to assume the rhetoric was lodged at the White House. “People have to be careful because at some point I fight back,” Trump said[ in a radio interview](http://www.wmal.com/2017/10/17/president-trump-speaks-with-chris-plante-on-wmal/) on WMAL Tuesday when asked about the speech. “I’m being very nice but at some point I’ll fight back and it won’t be pretty.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4986307/john-mccain-donald-trump-1930s-fight-back/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4986307/john-mccain-donald-trump-1930s-fight-back/"},"headline":"John McCain Is Worried the U.S. Is Going Back 'to the 1930s'","datePublished":"2017-10-17T20:23:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:54:00.780Z","description":"McCain, echoing the sentiments of his Monday night speech, said he is worried the U.S. is reverting to the nationalism of the 1930s.","url":"https://time.com/4986307/john-mccain-donald-trump-1930s-fight-back/","keywords":["John McCain","Congress","Foreign Policy","White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbf2d8238721b897/6988e23a096a9492386a00a2/john-mccain-nationalism.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/bltdbf2d8238721b897/6988e23a096a9492386a00a2/john-mccain-nationalism.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"John McCain Honored With Liberty Medal For A Lifetime Of Service","caption":"John McCain Honored With Liberty Medal For A Lifetime Of Service","creditText":"William Thomas Cain—Getty Images","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/john-mccain/","name":"John McCain"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4986307/john-mccain-donald-trump-1930s-fight-back/","name":"John McCain Is Worried the U.S. Is Going Back 'to the 1930s'"}}]}] ```