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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, once rivals of the late Senator John McCain, praised him in eulogies on Saturday and joined his daughter at a memorial service in subtle and not-so-subtle rebukes of President Donald Trump.

Without naming Trump, who did not attend the service, Meghan McCain condemned the president in remarks that at times drew applause and came after she said her dad told her to show them how tough you are with her eulogy.

We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who live lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served, she said, speaking forcefully and, at times, through tears.

Taking aim at Trumps campaign slogan, Make America Great Again, she said McCains America was always great.

For years Trump feuded publicly with McCain and mocked his military service, continuing to knock him even after he grew ill. The former Republican senator from Arizona died on Aug. 25 from brain cancer, days shy of his 82nd birthday.

Trump, also a Republican, spent Saturday tweeting on other subjects and went to one of his private golf clubs in Virginia.

Nearly every major U.S. political leader attended the memorial service, and while Trump himself was absent, his presence was felt through the content of the tributes.

And by design, McCain asked Obama and Bush to deliver eulogies while the family made clear that Trump was not welcome.

Obama, who beat McCain in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, hailed the one-time prisoner of war for his commitment to truth and core democratic values, qualities that some critics see lacking in Trump, a former reality television star and New York City real estate mogul.

So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult, and phony controversies, and manufactured outrage, Obama said. Its a politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born in fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.

Obama also noted McCains support for a free press. Trump has repeatedly called the media the enemy of the American people.

HE COULD NOT ABIDE BIGOTS AND SWAGGERING DESPOTS

Bush, in his eulogy, described McCain as a man with a code.

He loved freedom with a passion of a man who knew its absence. He respected the dignity inherent in every life, a dignity that does not stop at borders and cannot be erased by dictators, Bush said. Perhaps above all, John detested the abuse of power. He could not abide bigots and swaggering despots.

Trump has sought to forge close relationships with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The former U.S. presidents joked about McCains imperfections, while saying he made them better leaders. Their presence as eulogists was a clear signal from McCain of his desire for more civility and bipartisanship in Washington.

The senators body, which had lain in state at the U.S. Capitol, arrived at the cathedral with a motorcade that first stopped at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. There his wife, Cindy McCain, laid a wreath to honor those who died in the war.

Uniformed members of the military slowly carried the coffin into the soaring cathedral and back out again after the 2-1/2 hour service.

Top members of Trumps administration, including his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, attended, as did White House chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser John Bolton.

Other guests included former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, comedian Jay Leno, and former senators Bob Dole and John Kerry.

A powerful pipe organ and Navy brass ensemble played during the service and renowned opera singer Renee Fleming sang a stirring rendition of Danny Boy, drawing tears from Cindy McCain and others in the audience.

John McCain was a leading voice for revamping the countrys immigration, campaign finance and environmental laws. But it was his military service, punctuated by years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, that molded his political life.

Rising to the rank of captain in the U.S. Navy, he was shot down over Hanoi while on a bombing mission in 1967. Held as a prisoner until 1973, he was tortured by his North Vietnamese captors in a jail that Americans dubbed the Hanoi Hilton.

As a presidential candidate, Trump mocked McCain for getting captured in Vietnam. Trump himself received five deferments that got him out of serving in the military.

On Sunday McCain will be buried during a private service in Annapolis, Maryland, at the U.S. Naval Academy. McCain was a member of the Academys Class of 1958.

Additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Chizu Nomiyama

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Barack Obama and George W. Bush, the two men who kept John McCain from the presidency, will eulogize the senator at the National Cathedral memorial service.

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USA TODAY Published 6:48 a.m. ET Sept. 1, 2018 | Updated 9:17 a.m. ET Sept. 1, 2018

In this file photo taken on September 5, 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain pauses while addressing a campaign event at the Freedom Hill Ampitheatre in Sterling Heights, Michigan.(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

"Few of us have been tested the way John once was, or required to show the kind of courage that he did," former President Barack Obama said in astatement upon the news of Senator John McCain's passing. "But all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own. At John's best, he showed us what that means. And for that, we are all in his debt."

Obama will join former President George W. Bush in eulogizing the man that they both bested to become presidentof the United States.

McCain'smemorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. will begin at 10 a.m. ET Saturday.

Prior to the service, a procession will take place to carry Senator McCain from the United States Capitol Building, where he lay in state on Friday. His widowCindy McCain will lead the procession to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, where a wreath will be laid in her husband's honor, before proceeding to the National Cathedral for the memorial service.

USA TODAY isproviding extendedcoverage of McCain's memorial events, including Saturday'sservice atthe National Cathedral.You can watch itlive in the player above starting at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Senator John McCain devoted his life to serving our country. USA TODAY

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Last Updated Aug 27, 2018 12:49 AM EDT

John McCain requested that former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush deliver eulogies at his funeral, CBS News has confirmed. McCain, who had been suffering from an aggressive form of brain cancer, died Saturday at the age of 81 at home in Arizona. Both Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush will deliver their remarks during a service at the National Cathedral.

Former Vice President Joe Biden will speak at a separate service honoring the senator in Arizona.

McCain had long feuded with President Trump and, according to The Associated Press, two White House officials said McCain's family had asked, before the senator's death, that Mr. Trump not attend the funeral services. Vice President Pence is likely to attend, said the officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The New York Times says, "Mr. McCain quietly declared before his death that he did not want Mr. Trump to take part in his funeral."

According to Gov. Doug Ducey, McCain will lie in state at the Arizona Capitol on Wednesday, his birthday, before his body will be brought to Washington to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.

The senator asked that he be buried at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, near the grave of a long time friend, something he told Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes" in September 2017.

"I want, when I leave, that the ceremony is at the Naval Academy. And we just have a couple of people that stand up and say, 'This guy, he served his country,'" McCain said.

Mr. Obama, who defeated McCain in 2008 presidential race, issued a statement shortly after McCain's death saying that "we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed."

"Few of us have been tested the way John once was, or required to show the kind of courage that he did," Mr. Obama continued. "But all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own. At John's best, he showed us what that means. And for that, we are all in his debt."

Mr. Bush, who defeated McCain for the GOP nomination in 2000, issued a statement hailing McCain as a "a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order."

"Some lives are so vivid, it is difficult to imagine them ended," Mr. Bush said. "Some voices are so vibrant, it is hard to think of them stilled."

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Its the classiest, most passive-aggressive move Barack Obama could make: He posted on Facebook a list of books hes been reading.

Thats it.

This summer Ive been absorbed by new novels, the former president wrote Sunday, revisited an old classic, and reaffirmed my faith in our ability to move forward together when we seek the truth.

Obama didnt rage against his enemies or attack the pillars of our democracy. He didnt call anybody a dog. He didnt brag about his own bestsellers or the size of his book-reading hands.

Instead, he just presented a small window into the mind of a man who appreciates how books can alter the pace of our lives and illuminate the world.

One of my favorite parts of summer is deciding what to read when things slow down just a bit, Obama wrote, whether its on a vacation with family or just a quiet afternoon.

For a nation showered by the sputtering rage of his replacement, Obamas implicit reminder of how incurious and aliterate the Oval Office has become is almost cruel.

As usual, the former presidents summer reading list is a model of diverse voices and concerns, without a whiff of that synthetic intellectuality that frequently hovers around politicians alleged bedside reading. (Lets be honest, nobody is really enjoying Thucydidess History of the Peloponnesian War and Thomas Pikettys Capital this summer.) Obamas choices are books that one can easily find at most bookstores or libraries:

1. Educated, by Tara Westover (Random House).

Obama describes this as a remarkable memoir of a young woman raised in a survivalist family in Idaho who strives for education while still showing great understanding and love for the world she leaves behind. Westovers story is even more dramatic than that summary suggests: Her parents home-schooled their seven children largely on matters of faith, but she managed to get into Brigham Young University and eventually attended Harvard and earned a doctorate in history from Cambridge. Educated has been on The Washington Post bestseller list since it was published in February.

2. Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf).

The latest from the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, this novel takes place in London just after World War II. Obama notes that it is a meditation on the lingering effects of war on family. It tells the story of two British children left by their parents in the care of a stranger. Reviewing the novel for ThePost, Anna Mundow wrote, All is illuminated, at first dimly then starkly, but always brilliantly.

3. A House for Mr. Biswas, by V.S. Naipaul (Vintage).

Obama wrote, With the recent passing of V.S. Naipaul, I reread ... the Nobel Prize winners first great novel about growing up in Trinidad and the challenge of post-colonial identity. This is a particularly timely choice the writer died on Aug.11 and it also demonstrates the former presidents willingness to ignore the winds of political correctness. Later in life, Naipaul was accused of Islamophobia and misogyny, but that neednt blot out the artistry of his greatest books.

4. An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones (Algonquin).

Obama isnt the only big name to give this novel a boost this year. Oprah Winfrey chose it for her book club in February, and she plans to make a movie adaptation. The story is a perfect blend of thoughtful drama and social issues. When a husband is sent to prison for a sexual assault he didnt commit, he must deal with the horrors of incarceration, and his wife must deal with the challenges of living without him. Obama described it as a moving portrayal of the effects of a wrongful conviction on a young African-American couple.

5. Factfulness, by Hans Rosling (Flatiron).

The subtitle of this nonfiction book is Ten Reasons Were Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, which is a message we all could use now. Obama calls Rosling, a Swedish physician, an outstanding international public health expert, and notes that Factfulness is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases. Given the huge cloud of distortion enveloping the country, this is just what the doctor ordered.

Ron Charles writes about books for The Washington Post and hosts TotallyHipVideoBookReview.com .

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When the death of Aretha Franklin was announced on Thursday morning, one US president paid tribute to a voice that offered a glimpse of the divine, in which Americans could feel our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect.

That was the former president, Barack Obama, who released a joint statement with his wife Michelle praising the legacy of the woman known as the queen of soul.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, could not resist opening his remarks on the singers death with a little self-promotion.

I want to begin today by expressing my condolences to the family of a person I knew well. She worked for me on numerous occasions. She was terrific Aretha Franklin on her passing, Trump said at a White House cabinet meeting, according to a pool report.

He continued, more warmly: Shes brought joy to millions of lives and her extraordinary legacy will thrive and inspire many generations to come. She was given a great gift from God her voice, and she used it well. People loved Aretha. She was a special woman. So just want to pass on my warmest best wishes and sympathies to her family.

Trump did not explain further when he said he knew Franklin well and she worked for him. But the singer had performed at one of Trumps casinos and was photographed with him at the grand opening of New Yorks Trump International Hotel & Tower in 1997.

Franklin drew much more notice for her performance at Obamas first inauguration in 2009, when he was sworn into office as the first black president and she sang My Country, Tis of Thee on the steps of the Capitol. She also sang (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015, attended by Obama, and her performance moved him to tears.

But the Obamas statement focused on Franklins importance to Americans.

America has no royalty. But we do have a chance to earn something more enduring. Born in Memphis and raised in Detroit, Aretha Franklin grew up performing gospel songs in her fathers congregation. For more than six decades since, every time she sang, we were all graced with a glimpse of the divine, they said.

Through her compositions and unmatched musicianship, Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. She helped us feel more connected to each other, more hopeful, more human. And sometimes she helped us just forget about everything else and dance.

The Obamas sent their prayers to her family and all those moved by her song.

Trump posted a tweet that concluded: She will be missed!

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