On August 26th, former President Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery in order to honor the service members that died in Afghanistan in 2021. And for his role in their deaths, he should have been there to commemorate their ultimate sacrifice for our country, as should have President Biden.
And had it been a simple wreath laying ceremony and visiting with the families, I think more emphasis might have been placed on Biden’s absence. But in typical Trump fashion, his blatant disregard for any rules he doesn’t want to abide by has shifted the focus back to Trump’s continued disrespect for our military members in general.
And yes, he showed up for these families who asked him to be there and that should be noted. I am not trying to diminish that in any way, but–and it’s huge but, so–BUT in doing so, he broke federal regulations about official photography in that section of Arlington. And when confronted about it, his team members had an altercation with a member of the cemetery staff and later stated that she was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.”
I’m sorry what? Since when is doing your job a “mental health episode?”
There are people who want to say this is all blown out of proportion as a political ploy by the Democrats to make President Trump look bad. Sorry, folks–he doesn’t need any help in looking bad where the US Military is concerned.
Not only did he dodge the draft 5 times and made fun of POWs such as Senator John McCain, but he spent his entire administration and the years following completely shitting on the military and our veterans except when it served his purpose.
And it saddens me to say but that includes August 26th. If it were just about honoring those soldiers and their families, President Trump would have showed up with his wife and maybe a couple of his personal staff members. But he didn’t. He showed up with his campaign staff and camera people. They took pictures in a section of the cemetery where only ANC staff is allowed to film and included the grave markers of other fallen soldiers without the consent of their families. This is all to say that Trump had the opportunity to make it about the soldiers and their sacrifices, but he just couldn’t do it.
He had to make it about himself and try to get a dig in on the current administration. Why else would he have shown up? In the past he has made it abundantly clear what he thinks about visiting our soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country (click on link below for more information). This time isn’t any different.
Thank you for listening, please feel free to share, let me know if you want to discuss this further, and, as always click here for a link to research materials.
The Epicurious Texan 