Presenting a false façade of unity where none has existed for decades only plays into populist hands.

President Trump’s relations with the late Senator John McCain (R., Ariz.) were fraught, to say the least. Trump questioned McCain’s war heroism — he infamously joked that he liked soldiers who “weren’t caught” — and repeatedly slammed him for his supposed treachery in failing to support Trump’s presidential bid sufficiently. After McCain’s death, Trump initially offered no presidential statement, then had the White House flag raised to full-staff before the generally accepted period between the death and burial of a sitting senator. All of this was petty and childish.

McCain, for his part, obviously couldn’t stand Trump — he sniped at Trump’s Vietnam War deferments and launched into Trump’s “half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.” In part, McCain may even have voted in favor of preserving Obamacare thanks to his antipathy for Trump. McCain let his family know before his death that he didn’t want Trump at his funeral. (Other representatives from the administration were present.)