How a Trump visit sparked turmoil at America’s most sacred cemetery

Earlier this month, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign contacted military officials about visiting Arlington National Cemetery to mark the third anniversary of the Islamic State bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the evacuation from Afghanistan. Pentagon officials were deeply concerned about the former president turning the visit into a campaign stop, but they also didn’t want to block him from coming, according to Defense Department officials and internal messages reviewed by The Washington Post. Officials said they wanted to respect the wishes of grieving family members who wanted Trump there, but at the same time were wary of Trump’s record of politicizing the military. A cemetery employee tried to enforce the rules as provided to her by blocking Trump’s team from bringing cameras to the graves of U.S. service members killed in recent years, according to a senior defense official and another person briefed on the incident. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded to the first report of the altercation, from NPR on Tuesday, by accusing, without evidence, the employee of “suffering from a mental health episode.” Defense officials said that the employee was trying to do her job and that the claim of a mental health episode was false. “I just haven’t seen anything this disgusting,” said Paul Eaton, a retired Army general and adviser to the liberal group VoteVets whose father’s remains are interred at Arlington. “It is completely inappropriate to do any kind of political activity on a federal installation, and it is immoral in my terms to conduct any kind of self-serving activity on a cemetery with the graves of our fallen.” Advertisement Defense officials were concerned about the event Monday because Republicans have frequently used the bombing, a low point of the Biden administration, as a political cudgel. In advance of the event, cemetery officials told Trump’s team that he could come in his personal capacity and bring personal aides, but not campaign staff. Advertisement But Trump officials said they did not view the campaign’s own photographer and videographer as subject to the same restrictions, so they continued on to Section 60. The incident has raised concerns about the safety of Arlington staff members, the senior defense official said, with vitriol aimed at them initially on Monday by liberals, after the news coverage of Trump at the cemetery was published. That has given way to language from conservatives that also is “concerning.” “If the campaign feels the need to defend their team’s actions — which include bullying and physically pushing out of the way a longtime public servant and member of the team at Arlington working to protect the sanctity of the sacred spaces — then that’s on them,” one defense official said. End of story.” Advertisement A brief report of the incident was filed with security personnel overseeing the cemetery, the senior defense official said. Co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita, who was present Monday along with other campaign employees, in a statement called the cemetery employee “a despicable individual” who “does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.” LaCivita posted video on X on Monday of Trump laying flowers at the grave of Staff Sgt. In addition to the campaign’s TikTok video, Trump posed for photos on Monday at the graveside of Marine Sgt. Eaton called the gesture “appalling.” Advertisement The campaign also defended itself with a joint statement from the two injured Marines who appeared with Trump and the families of some of the service members killed, saying they wanted Trump and his cameras there. He didn’t come to us,” Hoover said. “He has shown nothing but sincerity to all of us and for what happened to our children, and for anybody else to try to take that away from the ceremony — both at the wreath-laying and at the graveside — is unconscionable.” Hoover and some of the other grieving families also participated in the Republican National Convention and said Biden has not granted multiple requests to meet with him. “That’s not the time or place for it,” said Karen Meredith, a VoteVets board member whose son, 1st Lt. Ken Ballard, is buried in the second row of Section 60. The lack of respect for the rules or the norms or the laws at Arlington — there’s just no respect.” Advertisement Rep. Michael Waltz (R.-Fla.), an Army veteran who participated in the Arlington event on Monday, stood by the family’s wishes and accused the cemetery employee of overstepping. “If they had a Trump-Vance banner and campaign signs, or if he went to the microphone and hit the other side, then okay,” he said. “But that wasn’t the case.” Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), turned the incident into a political attack during a campaign speech in Erie, Pa., on Wednesday. “We’re going to talk about a story out of those 13 brave, innocent Americans who lost their lives,” he said. He then falsely accused Harris of criticizing Trump’s visit to the cemetery, which she hasn’t commented on. A Harris campaign spokesman called it “pretty sad.” “She wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up,” Vance said. “She can go to hell.” Advertisement Trump has repeatedly defied restrictions on using federal property for campaign purposes by staging a political speech at Mount Rushmore, participating in a television interview inside the Lincoln Memorial, and holding the 2020 Republican National Convention at the White House itself. In 2015, he mocked the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for his time as a prisoner of war (“I like people who weren’t captured”), and earlier this month said the civilian Presidential Medal of Freedom was “much better” than the military Medal of Honor because those who received the latter were “either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.” Trump’s former aides have said he similarly disparaged service members in private, which he denies. Retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Trump responded to appearing with a wounded veteran by saying, “No one wants to see that.” His former chief of staff, John Kelly, said Trump called U.S. Marines buried at cemeteries in France “suckers” and “losers.” (Other former aides have said they didn’t hear those remarks.) Kelly has also said Trump told him during a previous visit to Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” “He never understood why would you do anything that doesn’t benefit you,” one former senior Trump White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a private interaction. That’s why it’s the height of hypocrisy he’s there laying a wreath, given his general feelings about veterans.” The former official said it was painful to see the suffering families put their faith in Trump. “They are clearly grieving, and their kids have given the ultimate sacrifice, and they think he can help them,” the former official said. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/28/trump-arlington-cemetery-section-60/