US Military

Current and former members of the military, elected officials and the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, have reacted with outrage and sadness as former members of the Donald Trump administration confirmed key details of a bombshell report in which Trump referred to fallen soldiers as “suckers” and “losers”.The Atlantic magazine published a story on Thursday based on four sources close to the president who said Trump cancelled a visit to pay respects at an American military cemetery outside Paris in 2018 because he thought the dead soldiers were “losers” and “suckers” and he did not want the rain to mess up his hair.Both Elizabeth Neumann, a former assistant secretary of counter-terrorism in the Department of Homeland Security, and Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff in that department, said the account was true, asserting that Trump’s low opinion of soldiers killed and wounded in combat was well-known inside the administration.Trump defenders included the secretary of state and the president himself, who dismissed the report as a false attack meant to damage his shot at re-election. The Atlantic report was “totally false”, Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday.Asked if he should apologize for his reported comments about fallen service members, Trump said: “No, it’s a fake story.”But a visibly angry Biden called the alleged comments “disgusting” and said Trump was “not fit to be commander-in-chief”.“When my son volunteered and joined the United States military – and went to Iraq for a year, won the Bronze Star and other commendations, he was not a sucker,” Biden said, his voice rising, in remarks in Wilmington, Delaware. His son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, was deployed to Iraq in 2008.“If these statements are true, the president should humbly apologize to every Gold Star mother and father and every Blue Star family,” Biden said. “Who the heck does he think he is?“I’m always cautioned not to lose my temper,” Biden said. “This may be as close as I come in this campaign. It’s just a marker of how deeply the president and I disagree on the role of the president of the United States of America.”The Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth, a Purple Heart recipient who lost both her legs during a combat mission in Iraq, accused Trump of attempting to “politicize and pervert our military to stroke his own ego” on a press call hosted by Biden’s campaign.“This is a man who spends every day redefining the concept of narcissism; a man who’s led a life of privilege, with everything handed to him on a silver platter,” said Duckworth. “Of course, he thinks about war selfishly. He thinks of it as a transactional cost, instead of in human lives and American blood spilled, because that’s how he’s viewed his whole life. He doesn’t understand other people’s bravery and courage, because he’s never had any of his own.“I take my wheelchair, and my titanium legs over Donald Trump’s supposed bone spurs any day,” she added, referring to the reason Trump received draft deferments during the Vietnam war.The call also included the Democratic congressman Conor Lamb, a marine veteran, and Khizr Khan, a Gold Star father whose son was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004.Khan said Trump is “incapable – let me repeat it again – he is incapable of understanding service, valor and courage”.“His soul cannot conceive of integrity and honor,” Khan continued. “His soul is that of a coward.”The secretary of state defended the president’s support of members of the military in an interview with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.“I’ve never heard that,” Mike Pompeo said of Trump calling the war dead “suckers”. “Indeed, just the opposite. I’ve been around him in lots of settings where there were both active-duty military, guardsmen, reservists, veterans. This is a man who had the deepest respect for their service, and he always, he always interacted with them in that way. He enjoys those times. He values those people.”On Friday, the Biden campaign released a video quoting the president based on the Atlantic story and later corroborating reports by the Washington Post and the Associated Press.With the tagline “If you don’t respect our troops, you cannot lead them,” the video overlays alleged Trump quotes on images of military cemeteries. More

A new report details multiple instances of Donald Trump allegedly making disparaging remarks about members of the US military who have been captured or killed, including referring to the American war dead at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as “losers” and “suckers”.The allegations were first reported Thursday in the Atlantic. A senior Defense Department official with firsthand knowledge of events confirmed some of the remarks to the Associated Press, including the 2018 cemetery comments.The defense official said Trump made the comments as he declined to visit the cemetery outside Paris during a meeting following his presidential daily briefing on the morning of 10 November 2018.Staffers from the National Security Council and the Secret Service told Trump that rainy weather made helicopter travel to the cemetery risky, but they could drive there. Trump responded by saying he didn’t want to visit the cemetery because it was “filled with losers”, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss it publicly.The White House blamed the canceled visit on poor weather at the time.In another conversation on the trip, the Atlantic said, Trump referred to the 1,800 Marines who died in the first world war battle of Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.“This report is patently false,” said White House 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 told 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 said. “It’s a total lie … It’s a disgrace.”Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, issued a statement 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 Defense official also confirmed to the AP reporting in The Atlantic that Trump on Memorial Day 2017 had gone with his chief of staff, John Kelly, to visit the Arlington Cemetery gravesite of Kelly’s son, Robert, who was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan, and said to Kelly: “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”The Atlantic, citing sources with firsthand knowledge, also reported that Trump said he didn’t want to support the August 2018 funeral of Republican senator John McCain, a decorated Navy veteran who spent years as a Vietnam prisoner of war, because he was a “loser”. It also reported that Trump was angered that flags were 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 only amplified his criticism of McCain as the Arizona lawmaker grew critical of his acerbic style of politics, culminating in a late-night “no” vote scuttling Trump’s plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump has continued to attack McCain for that vote, even posthumously.Trump tweeted on Thursday night: I was never a big fan of John McCain, disagreed with him on many things including ridiculous endless wars and the lack of success he had in dealing with the VA and our great Vets, but the lowering of our Nations American Flags, and the first class funeral he was given by our….— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020
..Country, had to be approved by me, as President, & I did so without hesitation or complaint. Quite the contrary, I felt it was well deserved. I even sent Air Force One to bring his body, in casket, from Arizona to Washington. It was my honor to do so. Also, I never called..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020
….John a loser and swear on whatever, or whoever, I was asked to swear on, that I never called our great fallen soldiers anything other than HEROES. This is more made up Fake News given by disgusting & jealous failures in a disgraceful attempt to influence the 2020 Election!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020
The magazine said Trump also referred to former President George HW Bush as a “loser” because he was shot down by the Japanese as a Navy pilot in World War II.Keith Kellogg, national security 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.” More