Political Stunt Disrupts the Peace at Arlington

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump paid a visit to Arlington National Cemetery near our nation's Capitol on Monday.  He brought along his political entourage as well as a few family members of the 13 US military troops who had been killed at the Kabul, Afghanistan, airport's Abbey Gate as our nation finished its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, a move that had been set in motion by the Trump administration but had been concluded while Joe Biden was President.    Trump's sudden interest in the fate of members of the US military appeared to be more closely tied to national politics than it was to honest concern over the victims or their families, and he has been accused in the press of trying to draw attention to the chaotic withdrawal and place the blame for that on Biden.

Trump, who has a long history of disparaging members of our military and has reportedly referred to American veterans and war heroes as "suckers" and  "losers," had also been at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day in 2017, while serving as President of the United States, with retired Marine Corps General John Kelly,  Trump's one-time Secretary of Homeland Security and later his longest-serving Chief of Staff.  They had been there for the annual wreath-laying ceremony, but then took a stroll through the cemetery to visit the gravesite of Kelly's 29-year-old son who had been killed in Afghanistan.  While they were at the son's grave, Trump turned to the bereaved father and said, regarding the dead service members:  "I don't get it.  What was in it for them?"

And to Trump's credit, he undoubtedly did not "get it."  The Trump family has avoided military service for generations, and Donald himself avoided the draft during the Vietnam War when his father was able to locate a doctor who was creative enough to save the younger Trump from the bother of going to war - and diagnosed the avid golfer with "bone spurs" of the feet.

Praise Jesus and pass the Big Macs!

In November of 2018, Trump, who was still President, travelled to France on the taxpayer's dime to, among other things, take part in the one-hundred year anniversary of the Armistice that had ended the First World War.  While there he suddenly declined to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at an Allied cemetery where many American servicemen were interred because the weather had turned rainy and Trump was fearful of mussing his highly-shellacked hair.

A few years later General Kelly revealed that Donald Trump did not like to be seen with military amputees because "It doesn't look good for me."

Last week Trump, now a "former" President was again in the news on a military-related matter when he publicly compared the Congressional Medal of Honor with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and declared that the Medal of Freedom was "much better" than the Medal of Honor because you did not have to be wounded or killed in order to receive it.  Al Lipphardt, the head of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) issued a statement in which he called Trump's remarks on that subject "asinine and crass."

And so this week, Donald John Trump, a man with a long and sordid history of disparaging the US military, shows up at Arlington National Cemetery with some family members of US war dead in tow along with campaign staff, and a videographer and photographer - just over two months out from a national election that could keep him out of jail - and proceeds to hold a ceremony that smells like a partisan political stunt.

According to those in charge of the national cemetery, federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries.

In a report on National Public Radio (NPR) an incident occurred when the Trump group showed up on Monday and proceeded to photograph their ceremony.  A cemetery official attempted to keep them from filming and photographing in the area where the graves were located.   A verbal and physical altercation ensued and the cemetery official was verbally abused and pushed aside by members of the Trump campaign staff.   She has filed an official report on the matter.

Trump's campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, referred to the cemetery official as a "despicable individual" and Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesperson, remarked that the cemetery official was "clearly suffering from a mental health episode."

Officials from the Trump campaign calling the cemetery official, who was just trying to do her job by adhering to federal law, "despicable" and questioning her mental health.  Oh, the irony!

She is a patriot well worth a salute and a handshake!