A fight reportedly broke out between a Donald Trump campaign staffer and an Arlington National Cemetery official on Mon. Aug. 26, 2024, when Trump dropped by Arlington to observe 13 U.S. service members who died in Afghanistan posthumously receiving their Congressional Gold Medal.
Trump’s reasons for attending the wreath-laying ceremony were political from the start: As the GOP candidate, he’s been criticized for calling U.S. military veterans who died in combat “losers and suckers.” (Trump denies he said that.) Trump also said this about the late U.S. Senator and Vietnam War veteran John McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
Furthermore, the 13 service members died in Afghanistan around the same time President Biden pulled U.S. forces out of the country, and the Trump campaign has characterized the service members’ deaths as a major failure for Biden’s administration.
For these reasons, Trump wanted to maximize the PR opportunities afforded by attending the Arlington ceremony, to help him push back on Democratic allegations he doesn’t support the armed forces, and to highlight what he sees as a major Biden-Harris administration foreign policy blunder.
The problem was that only Arlington staff could film and take pictures in Section 60, where recent U.S. casualties are buried, a rule Arlington said they made clear to Trump and his campaign staff.
Citing an unnamed source, NPR says Trump staffers tried to take pictures and video anyway, and “a physical altercation” involving pushing and shoving broke out when an Arlington official tried to stop them.
Arlington confirmed the incident
Arlington confirmed the incident but provided few other details about exactly what happened. And it isn’t just an arbitrary rule preventing filming and photography in that area, either: It’s federal law, Arlington added in their statement to NPR.
“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign. Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung denied there was a physical altercation and said Trump’s campaign had footage of what happened that they are prepared to release if necessary.
“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” the Cheung statement said. Cheung later added on X, “We were granted access to have a photographer there.”
At this writing, Trump has not commented on NPR’s report. Trump did, however, share a statement on Truth Social from families in attendance that day, stating, “The president and his team conducted themselves with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity for all of our service members.”
The ‘thumbs up’ photograph
News spread of the reported pushing and shoving match amid calls for Trump campaign staff involved in whatever happened to be fired, and for Trump’s campaign to apologize. One comment on Steven Cheung’s social media post stating Trump’s campaign was permitted to have a photographer on the premises pointed out the following:
“Why would Trump want a smiling thumbs-up selfie by a grave in Arlington? What is wrong with you people?” another comment added. So far, Trump’s campaign has not released the footage they purportedly have of the reported altercation.
The Army has also not commented on the matter. According to a defense official, Arlington staff correctly informed the Trump campaign staff that video and photography rules differ in certain areas, The Washington Post reported.
Published: Aug 28, 2024 01:15 pm