A scathing new article from The Atlantic claims multiple sources reported that President Trump has repeatedly denigrated American military veterans in private, including the late John McCain.
“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” These are words Trump allegedly spoke to senior staff members on the morning he canceled his trip to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018 — a cancelation he blamed on rain.
Trump’s disregard for the military cannot come as a surprise to anyone who has watched how he has responded to veterans over the years. It’s difficult to forget his insistence that John McCain is no war hero because Trump likes “people who weren’t captured.” It’s also difficult to forget the president’s attacks on a Gold Star family simply because they opposed his stance on Muslims.
But it sounds as if Trump’s comments in private, somehow, continued to be even worse. The Atlantic reports that he also told White House staff not to include wounded veterans in a military parade because “nobody wants to see that,” was angry that flags flew at half-staff for McCain’s death, and “didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies” in World War I.
Responses to the article have been as expected — many die-hard Trump supporters are calling it fake news, while everyone else is horrified that this is the guy we somehow elected as the leader of the country.
And veterans in particular are taking issue with the things Trump has allegedly said.
Right on schedule, Trump hopped on Twitter last night after the article went live to deny all the accusations.
While his acolytes are primed to believe his lies, the facts dispute Trump’s claims.
Trump’s willingness to “swear on whatever” that he never called McCain a loser is fairly meaningless when there is proof to the contrary.
And the Associated Press has independently confirmed several of the stories reported by The Atlantic, including the comments Trump made about not wanting to go to a cemetery full of losers.
However, if Trump’s very publicly attacking McCain, the family of slain veteran Humayun Khan, and the egregious misuse of the military to clear protestors out for a photo op with a Bible didn’t influence MAGA folks to change their tunnel vision of Trump as some idol to be worshipped, it seems unlikely any of these new accounts will make any difference.
