'America was always great’: Meghan McCain pays tribute to father

Meghan McCain, the daughter of late Senator John McCain has paid tribute to her father with a broadside at Donald Trump, telling her father’s funeral the US president has used 'cheap rhetoric' against a man celebrated as a war hero and statesman.

Source: Reuters

John McCain's daughter has opened his memorial service with a tearful and impassioned tribute, posing her father's legacy as a direct challenge to US President Donald Trump.

Meghan McCain said her father was a "great man" and she encouraged others to live up to his example, setting a tone that echoed the senator's own fighting spirit.

Meghan McCain's tearful and impassioned eulogy for father John appeared to reference Donald Trump. Source: AP

"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 lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served," she said, her voice raising from tearful to anger.

"The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great," she told the service to applause at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday.

Mr Trump is not on hand for the ceremony, after the McCain family made clear he was not invited.

Meghan McCain cries at the casket of her father. Source: AAP