The Navy's top spokesman acknowledged Friday that the White House did in fact request the service obscure the USS John S. McCain while President Donald Trump was visiting, but the request was ultimately denied. "A request was made to the U.S. Navy to minimize the visibility of USS John S. McCain," Rear Adm. Charlie Brown said in a statement to Task & Purpose. There were also no intentional efforts to explicitly exclude Sailors assigned to USS John S. As was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the White House military office had requested the McCain be obscured during Trump's visit to Japan. "The name of USS John S. McCain was not obscured during the POTUS visit to Yokosuka on Memorial Day," Brown wrote on Twitter.

Source: Wall Street Journal June 01, 2019 15:23 UTC