A brand new report particulars a number of situations of Donald Trump allegedly making disparaging remarks about members of the US army who’ve been captured or killed, together with referring to the American warfare lifeless on the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as “losers” and “suckers”.
The allegations had been first reported Thursday within the Atlantic. A senior Protection Division official with firsthand data of occasions confirmed a few of the remarks to the Related Press, together with the 2018 cemetery feedback.
The protection official mentioned Trump made the feedback as he declined to go to the cemetery exterior Paris throughout a gathering following his presidential each day briefing on the morning of 10 November 2018.
Staffers from the Nationwide Safety Council and the Secret Service informed Trump that wet climate made helicopter journey to the cemetery dangerous, however they might drive there. Trump responded by saying he didn’t need to go to the cemetery as a result of it was “filled with losers”, the official mentioned, talking on situation of anonymity as a result of the official was not licensed to debate it publicly.
The White Home blamed the canceled go to on poor climate on the time.
In one other dialog on the journey, the Atlantic mentioned, Trump referred to the 1,800 Marines who died within the first world warfare battle of Belleau Wooden as “suckers” for getting killed.
“This report is patently false,” mentioned White Home strategic communications director Alyssa Farah. “President Trump holds the military in the highest regard. He’s demonstrated his commitment to them at every turn: delivering on his promise to give our troops a much needed pay raise, increasing military spending, signing critical veterans reforms, and supporting military spouses. These nameless anecdotes have no basis in fact and are offensive fiction.”
Trump himself informed reporters on Thursday the story was false. “To think that I would make statements negative to our military and fallen heroes when nobody has done what I’ve done,” for the US armed forces, Trump mentioned. “It’s a total lie … It’s a disgrace.”
Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, issued an announcement on the allegations: “If the revelations in today’s Atlantic article are true, then they are yet another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the President of the United States.”
The Protection official additionally confirmed to the AP reporting in The Atlantic that Trump on Memorial Day 2017 had gone along with his chief of workers, John Kelly, to go to the Arlington Cemetery gravesite of Kelly’s son, Robert, who was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan, and mentioned to Kelly: “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
The Atlantic, citing sources with firsthand data, additionally reported that Trump mentioned he didn’t need to help the August 2018 funeral of Republican senator John McCain, a embellished Navy veteran who spent years as a Vietnam prisoner of warfare, as a result of he was a “loser”. It additionally reported that Trump was angered that flags had been flown at half-staff for McCain, saying: “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser.”
In 2015, shortly after launching his presidential candidacy, Trump publicly blasted McCain, saying “He’s not a war hero.” He added, “I like people who weren’t captured.”Trump solely amplified his criticism of McCain because the Arizona lawmaker grew crucial of his acerbic fashion of politics, culminating in a late-night “no” vote scuttling Trump’s plans to repeal the Reasonably priced Care Act. Trump has continued to assault McCain for that vote, even posthumously.
The journal mentioned Trump additionally referred to former President George HW Bush as a “loser” as a result of he was shot down by the Japanese as a Navy pilot in World Struggle II.
Keith Kellogg, nationwide safety adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, tweeted Thursday: “The Atlantic story is completely false. Absolutely lacks merit. I’ve been by the President’s side. He has always shown the highest respect to our active duty troops and veterans with utmost respect paid to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice and those wounded in battle.”
