Albert R. Hunt, Columnist

McCain Could Be a Bulwark Against Trump

The Republican senator breaks with the president-elect on ethics, national security and immigration.

November 29, 2016 at 5:32 PM UTC

Albert R. Hunt is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal.

Party guy.
Photographer: Ralph Freso/Getty Images

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There may be one senator, not Chuck Schumer or any other Democrat, who could be a check on some of President Donald Trump's likely excesses: John McCain.

The president-elect and the five-term Republican from Arizona are almost polar opposites on issues ranging from service and public responsibilities to national security. McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has made clear he will oppose Trump policies that would amount to appeasement of Russia's Vladimir Putin on Syria or elsewhere, or any effort to circumvent the law and revive "enhanced interrogation" methods against terrorists that he has described as torture.