WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump faces explosive allegations he repeatedly disparaged members of the military and described America’s war dead as “losers” and “suckers” – accusations he has angrily denied.
The Atlantic magazine described a 2018 meeting with senior officials in France in which Trump discussed why he was cancelling a planned visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris to honor America’s war dead.
The president publicly blamed the cancellation of the visit on safety concerns expressed by the Secret Service due to rain which made it impossible to fly a helicopter there.
But The Atlantic, citing four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day, reported Trump said in the meeting he didn’t want to go because he didn’t want his hair to get disheveled in the rain and he didn’t see why he should honor dead soldiers.
“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” the magazine quoted Trump as saying. The report said he referred to the more than 1,800 marines who died at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.
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While The Atlantic was the first to report the allegations about Trump’s comments on the cemetery visit, two sources confirmed some of Trump’s remarks to the Associated Press: A senior Defense Department official with firsthand knowledge of the events and a senior U.S. Marine Corps officer who was told about Trump’s comments.
The AP reported Defense officials said Trump made the comments as he begged off visiting the cemetery outside Paris during a meeting on the morning of Nov. 10, 2018.
Here’s what we know about the accusations, Trump’s response and the reaction to them:
Trump denies making the comments
Trump said Thursday people who would suggest he said such things are “low lifes and they’re liars.”
“And I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes. There is nobody that respects them more,” he told reporters.
Report: Trump didn’t want wounded veterans included in military parades
In addition to the comments about the cemetery visit, The Atlantic reported several other instances where Trump disparaged military members.
According to the magazine, he told staff he didn’t want wounded veterans included in military parades because spectators might feel uncomfortable seeing amputees.
Trump: ‘There’s nobody’ who respects fallen soldiers more
Trump told reporters “there is nobody that respects” fallen soldiers more than he does.
He said he wanted to go to the ceremony in France but that the Secret Service informed him “there was no way I would have been able to do it.” Trump said he spoke with first lady Melania Trump at the time and expressed his disappointment.
Trump’s long feud with McCain
The Atlantic reported Trump remained fixated on the late Sen. John McCain, who had continued to criticize Trump once he became president. The magazine, citing three sources, said when McCain died in August 2018, Trump told his senior staff that “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral” and became furious when he saw flags lowered to half-staff.
Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff at the department of Homeland Security, tweeted at Trump: “You were angry that DHS notified federal buildings to lower the flags for Sen. McCain. I would know because your staff called and told me.”
Trump and McCain have a complicated history that dates back many years, even before Trump launched his campaign for president. The late senator’s war record was one of Trump’s early complaints.
Trump, considering a run for president, criticized McCain’s war service as he sized up other potential candidates in an interview on CBS in 2000. “He was captured,” Trump said, in remarks he would echo years later. “Does being captured make you a hero? I don’t know. I’m not sure.”
Most Americans caught their first glimpse of the feud when Trump, speaking in Iowa four years later, questioned whether McCain was “a war hero because he was captured” in the Vietnam War. Trump, who did not serve in the war, said he liked “people that weren’t captured.”
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McCain’s inner circle informed the White House in 2018 the ailing senator did not want Trump to attend his funeral, according to The New York Times. Upon McCain’s death, Trump honored those wishes but faced a public outcry from veterans’ groups and others after raising U.S. flags two days after they had been lowered out of respect for the late senator. The White House quickly lowered the flags again.
Trump has continued his attacks against McCain, telling reporters in 2019: “I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be.
Trump’s daughter, Meghan McCain, wrote on Twitter late Thursday the loss of her father “is still incredibly painful and raw.”
Regarding Trump, “No one is more acutely aware of how vile and disgusting Trump has been to my family, it is still hard to understand,” she wrote. “America knows who this man is…”
Veterans’ groups react
The story landed amid evidence Trump is struggling politically with the military vote.
A Military Times poll published this week – based on surveys of 1,018 active-duty troops surveyed in late July and early August – said 49.9% had an unfavorable view of the president, compared to about 38% percent who had a favorable view.
Some veterans’ groups reacted angrily over Trump’s reported comments.
“This story doesn’t just make me angry. It’s disgusting,” tweeted Will Goodwin, a West Point graduate and director of government relations for VoteVets, a progressive political action committee. “It makes me feel sick. It’s disgusting. It’s an unthinkable betrayal.”
Wall of Vets, a group that supports the Black Lives Matter movement, also responded angrily on Twitter, saying “this is the Commander in Chief and this is how he views our fallen brothers and sisters.”
David Weissman, an Army combat veteran who describes himself as an “apologetic former Trump supporter,” recommended veterans post their military photos as a profile picture on Twitter “to let Trump know how many people he has offended by calling soldiers losers and suckers.”
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