Donald Trump attacks Arizona's John McCain, who has been dead nearly 5 years

Corrections & Clarifications: President Harry Truman's name was incorrect in an earlier version of this article.

The late Sen. John McCain apparently remains a preoccupation of former President Donald Trump despite McCain's death in 2018.

This time, Trump complained that the series of McCain funerals and memorial services went on for too long.

In his new coffee-table book "Letters to Trump," priced at $99, Trump includes a letter from McCain, R-Ariz., and writes that he was never a big fan of McCain's, which is not exactly a revelation.

Trump wrote in the book that he "never warmed to him" and "never felt good about anybody having anything to do with John McCain and never will, even despite the fact that at their request, I gave him the world’s longest funeral, 11 days. Much like his wars, it never ended."

McCain, 81, died Aug. 25, 2018, after being diagnosed with brain cancer. He lay in state at the state Capitol in Phoenix and at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Memorial services took place at North Phoenix Baptist Church and at Washington National Cathedral. He was buried Sept. 2, 2018, at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

Meghan McCain, McCain's daughter, responded on Twitter to a clip of Newsmax host Greg Kelly reading the passage about her father from Trump's book.

"The 2024 Presidential election will be decided by 3 swing states − Wisconsin, Georgia, and ARIZONA," McCain tweeted Wednesday. "The last two times Trump and his imitators made elections in Arizona about desecrating my family he lost handily. Keep at it, you Buffo(o)n."

Trump and McCain carried on perhaps one of the most legendary political feuds of the past 10 years, and Trump repeatedly has signaled that his animosity didn't die with the six-term U.S. senator, 2008 Republican presidential nominee and celebrated prisoner of war.

While McCain was alive, he and Trump battled over many issues, with the rivalry intensifying in 2015 after Trump, who did not serve in Vietnam, mocked McCain's POW record.

Trump said McCain, a former Navy aviator who was shot down in 1967, was “a war hero because he was captured” and that he liked “people that weren’t captured.” The North Vietnamese held McCain as a POW for more than five years; he was released 50 years ago last month.

Trump also relentlessly attacked McCain over immigration, veterans' issues and other topics. For his part, McCain eventually withdrew his endorsement of Trump's presidential bid after a 2005 recording surfaced that revealed Trump trivializing sexual assault, using vulgar terms about women and making other misogynistic comments.

Later, McCain infuriated Trump by famously giving the thumbs-down to and helping to block a Trump-backed push to roll back predecessor President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act.

In the 2016 presidential election, Trump carried Arizona over Democrat Hillary Clinton by 3.5 percentage points. McCain, in his final Senate race, outperformed Trump on the same ballot, winning a sixth term by about 12 percentage points.

Trump continued to belittle McCain after his death, alienating many longtime Republican supporters and allies of McCain's in Arizona. In his failed 2020 reelection race, Trump narrowly lost Arizona to President Joe Biden, who was buoyed in the state by the support of Cindy McCain, John McCain's widow.

Biden became the first Democrat to carry Arizona since President Bill Clinton in 1996 and only the second to do so since President Harry Truman in 1948. Although McCain and Biden opposed each other during the 2008 presidential race, when Biden was Obama's running mate, they remained friends and Biden eulogized McCain at his North Phoenix Baptist Church memorial service.

In her tweet, Meghan McCain also appears to reference Trump-endorsed Republican Kari Lake's unsuccessful 2022 campaign to become Arizona governor. Lake ran a Trump-style race that included bashing the long-dead McCain and at one point telling any "McCain Republicans" in attendance at an event to "get the hell out."

Dan Nowicki is The Arizona Republic's national politics editor. Follow him on Twitter at @dannowicki.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Donald Trump still attacking AZ's John McCain, dead nearly 5 years