The Washington media love superficial displays and meaningless gestures in politics, so naturally they were offended that President Trump didn’t write a poem and have a public cry about the passing of Arizona Sen. John McCain.

McCain didn’t want Trump at his funeral, he cast the critical vote to keep Obamacare intact, and in 2015 he referred to Trump’s supporters as “the crazies.”

The decent thing for anyone who would have been in Trump’s place after McCain died Saturday would be to keep your mouth shut.

Other than a Saturday tweet offering “deepest sympathies and respect” for McCain’s family, it wasn’t until Monday that the White House released an official statement wherein Trump said that despite their differences, “I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country.”

But the media prefer a fake show and were affronted that Trump didn’t instead lie and say he loved McCain like a twin brother.

Under the headline “Trump’s not-so-subtle denigration of a dead man,” Aaron Blake at the Washington Post said Trump was “giving his supporters license to view the beatification of John McCain with skepticism or even derision.”

A New York Times article sniffed that Trump had failed to make “even the most cursory public show of respect” for McCain.

CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Monday dared former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum to “dignify” Trump ignoring shouted questions from reporters about McCain.

What could be more dignified than silence?

When someone dies, even someone with a brave war record, it’s not written anywhere that grown men have to turn into Dana Milbank, who absolutely has to let the world know he cries thinking about McCain.

In an interview Wednesday on CNN, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said after he honored McCain the previous day on the Senate floor that he received a private call from Trump. Graham said that Trump told him, “That was very sad” and, “You did right by your friend.”

That’s not what the Washington media wanted. But it’s probably closer to what McCain would have.