Donnie Trump Continues his Attacks on US Military

by Pa Rock
Veteran

Like his father and grandfather before him, Donald John Trump couldn't be bothered to wear the uniform of his country.  Donnie didn't just not serve, he actively worked at not serving.  According to his niece, Mary Trump, he and his family hired someone to take the SATs for him so that he could get into college during the Vietnam War years, and when he eventually became a likely target of the draft his family found a doctor who provided a highly questionable medical excuse to avoid being drafted.  Poor Donnie had bone spurs in his feet, a condition that, if true, would still be with him today - something that would make his nearly constant golfing quite painful.

But just "not serving" was not enough for Donnie.  The smiling rich boy was raised to believe that he was superior to all others, and that included those who were not as smart as he was when it came to avoiding military service.   Those young people who were drafted, and even those who jumped up and enlisted, were obviously no match for a playboy like Donnie Trump, and he remained quick to disparage them for not being his equal.

One Vietnam veteran whom Donnie famously ridiculed was Navy pilot John McCain, who, like Donnie Bone Spurs, was also a fortunate son of privilege.  But McCain, the son and grandson of Navy admirals, did his part and was flying combat missions over Vietnam while Donnie was home working on his golf game.  McCain was subsequently shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese and spent five years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton as a prisoner of war.  Trump would, years later, ridicule McCain saying that he was only a war hero because he had been captured - and he (Trump) preferred people who were not captured.

In November of 2018 Donald Trump and his extensive entourage had flown to Paris on the taxpayers' dime so that Trump could take part, along with many other world leaders, in a memorial honoring the fallen of World War I at a cemetery in France - a cemetery where many US war dead were buried.  But on the morning of the actual ceremony a rain set in over central France, and Donnie decided to skip the ceremony and stay in his hotel room, a move many credited with his desire to protect his high maintenance hair.  All of the other world leaders who had gathered for the event went to the cemetery without the prima donna US leader.

This summer it was widely reported that the Russian government had placed cash bounties with the Taliban on the lives of US military members serving in Afghanistan.  Trump, as well as most of the rest of the Republican Party, chose to ignore those reports and not raise the matter in discussions and official meetings with members of the Russian government.  

Some in the US military were beginning to figure out that Donald Trump might not have a firm handle on what it means to be the Commander-in-Chief of the US Military.

Then last month The Atlantic reported that Trump had called US troops who died in battle "suckers" and "losers," which flashed back to his disparaging remarks about McCain only being a hero because he had been captured - and the fact that a light rain had kept Trump from attending ceremony for the Allied war dead in France.   And before the remarks in The Atlantic had time to dissipate, Trump angered some in the Pentagon when he accused the Defense Department of making decisions to send troops into combat to appease defense contractors.

Just a few days ago Donald Trump suggested that he might have caught the coronavirus from a group of Gold Star families who visited the White House on September 29th.  (Gold Star families are immediate family members of military members who have been killed in action.)  His suggestion sent shockwaves through the community of Gold Star families as well as their friends and supporters within the nations's active duty military.

And this week Donnie Johnnie took one more cheap shot at the US military.   He retweeted a claim by the whack-job conspiracy group, QAnon, which claimed that Osama bin Laden was not killed during the attack on his compound by Navy SEALS nine years ago, and that the  story of his demise at the hands of SEAL Team Six was just a film stunt in which a body-double had actually been killed instead of Bin Laden.   Robert O'Neill, a former Navy SEAL who claims to have fired the shot that killed the world's most wanted terrorist, was not amused.  O'Neill, a former Trump supporter, is emphatic in his insistence that Osama bin Laden died by gunfire in Pakistan in 2011 - regardless of what QAnon or Donald Trump might want us to believe for political reasons.

Donald Trump may hug the flag and salute Marine One when there are cameras about, but he is also feeding into a long line of  nonsense and noise about the military that is making some of its members and supporters nervous.  Is the United States military the front-line of our defense, or is it just a cheap foil for Donald Trump's political machinations?

It is beginning to look as though a man who couldn't be bothered to serve his nation in uniform also can't be bothered to be its Commander-in-Chief.

When someone tells you who they are - believe them the first time!