Opinion | I’m a combat veteran. Here’s why Trump’s Arlington stunt was so insulting.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-arlington-national-cemetery-grave-photo-rcna168767
Opinion | I’m a combat veteran. Here’s why Trump’s Arlington stunt was so insulting.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-arlington-national-cemetery-grave-photo-rcna168767
48 comments
Ok, but have you considered that he is a malignant narcissist who can’t conceive that other people exist beyond himself?
**Part one of two since too long for comment box:**
*”I’m a combat veteran. Here’s why Trump’s Arlington stunt was so insulting. His disregard for military tradition and his disdain for military service members is well documented.*
*By Brandon Friedman, CEO of Rakkasan Tea Company and Afghanistan and Iraq veteran*
*”Serving in a unit like the 101st Airborne Division can feel like a job. It’s a normal, everyday thing. Even in combat. It’s not until after you leave a famous unit like that — after you leave the Army, in fact — that you realize it is a privilege to lead and serve alongside such soldiers.*
*It’s not until much later, among the regular people at the office, that you realize how unlikely it is that anyone around you would ever grab three guys and come running if you were pinned down or out of ammo. In the Army, you take those things for granted because everybody does it. They do it. They don’t question it. They don’t all survive.*
*For those of us who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, Section 60 — the burial site of hundreds of service members killed in those wars — is the inner sanctum.*
*I survived and I’m old now. Not truly old. I’m 46. But old in the Army sense. I’m no longer carved out of wood. My left hamstring groans at the thought of running more than a mile. Doctors have taken an interest in my colon.*
*But I realize this is a privilege. It’s a gift. Being old, I mean. Aging out. For once, I’m finally aware of the privilege in the moment. I am old. But I have friends who are still in their 20s. Friends who should be in their 40s. Some of them are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.*
*That is what makes Arlington a special place. And for those of us who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, Section 60 — the burial site of hundreds of service members killed in those wars — is the inner sanctum. It is the most sacred plot among more than 600 hallowed acres. When I lived in Northern Virginia during Barack Obama’s administration, I avoided Section 60 studiously. It was too much, and still too close. There was always that looming sense that it could’ve been me. Maybe it should’ve been me.*
*So I didn’t visit until I was about to move back to Dallas. An Army buddy told me I had to go before I left D.C. So I did. Finally.*
*All of this is to say that, to combat veterans, Arlington National Cemetery has the same power that all holy places have. And that is why* [*Donald Trump’s recent behavior is so repulsive*](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-arlington-cemetery-controversy-goes-bad-worse-rcna168747)*.*
*Trump was so eager to use Arlington’s Section 60 as* [*a backdrop for a campaign event*](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-aide-pushed-arlington-national-cemetery-employee-commemoration-d-rcna168768) *this week that he may have broken federal laws against politicizing the burial ground to do it. Trump’s staff also shoved aside a cemetery official trying to stop them. He even posed for a photograph over a U.S. Marine’s gravesite, grinning and giving a thumbs-up. The moment was jaw-droppingly crass and vulgar, as all of Trump’s are. It defiled sacred ground.*
*But of course, Trump’s disregard for military tradition and his disdain for military service members is well documented. This incident was only the latest in a long line.*
It really shouldn’t even be an opinion. He just blatantly took a memorial and made his an ego trip. He’s garbage.
They don’t care!
The backlash just keeps on coming! Oh boy…
I haven’t seen the story on any right wing news sites. His base has no idea that it happened. Not that they would care.
“All Americans should keep this front of mind as we head into the fall. In particular, veterans should remember that Donald Trump’s behavior at Arlington National Cemetery this week epitomizes not only how he is a menace to the United States, but how he is an enemy of everything we fought for.”
Donald Trump is unAmerican. Not like us, Not like us
for people trying to defend it.
why was his campaign manger present.
why did he bring a full camera crew and professional photographer.
who paid said people to be there.
It’s another item in a LONG FUCKING LIST of things Trump has said or done that should have disqualified him from office or as a political figure.
But Republicans do not fucking care. They keep trying to shove this absolute buffoon on to us because they only care about power.
If Republicans were willing to vote down veteran healthcare back in 2022, why the absolute fuck would they care about Trump doing this?
I’m used to the cowardice. I’m used to Republican hypocrisy.
But with Trump and this brand of Republicans, I am not used to this level of cruelty that they display day in and day out.
Anyone who claims they are a Republican should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.
Donny Downer doesn’t care what you think or feel. He does what he wants when he wants then complains about it and blames someone else when he’s called on it. All he does is lie and complain. And people love it!
Trump is not an American He’s an Oligarch Narcissistic Traitor who can be bought by anyone with flattery
Putin is his favorite customer and he probably has truckloads of top secret documents via Trump
what he did was against the law – I still don’t understand why or how people can want him in charge again – he rapes women and doesn’t care, he lies, cheats, steals, he doesn’t care about being POTUS he just wants power, he hates the military and sees the men and women that serve as toys or pawns for him to play with, and he’s a convicted criminal a felon, he’s a villain, it’s still so unbelievable he’s running at all.
You don’t have to be a combat veteran to understand how disgusting it was to step foot on those hallowed grounds and pull the shit he did. We took the land from the confederate Robert E Lee and buried our brothers and sisters on it for a reason. Anyone who’s watched the changing of guards or gone to various plots understands what those who are there sacrificed for.
My grandfather and uncle are buried there. I find this whole thing absolutely disgusting. Old bone spurs has no right to go there. Ever.
Fuck trump, fuck maga. Fuck anyone who believes his actions were presidential.
World’s biggest spoiled bully wants a taste of everything. He’s sticking his dick in everything. Makes the world’s richest men publicly humiliate themselves for him. Mocks veterans then publicly cums all over their only sacred grounds. He puts his finger in everyone’s pie. And yet soldiers and veterans cherish him and worship at his feet. He is Rasputin and he is fucking the empress America. If you never understood Jim Jones or David Koresh and why those people died for them, this is that on a scale never seen before. Millions would die or kill for him.
Am I missing something? Where are the headlines about how Trump caused the abrupt withdrawal from Afghanistan by making a deal with the Taliban? That’s the lie at the center of this stunt: that it was Joe Biden’s call to withdraw. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020–2021_U.S._troop_withdrawal_from_Afghanistan
I’m not a combat veteran. But I’m disgusted by what Trump did. I’m equally disgusted by Mike Johnson, the speaker of the house using his influence to allow Trump to break the law there. I know Mike is partisan, but in our national cemetery? What a pile of garbage these people are.
This particular part in the article especially drives the point home (with a gut punch): “Trump began his adult life dodging the draft for Vietnam. Someone else went in his place. Maybe that person survived. Or maybe they’re buried at Arlington with thousands of other Vietnam veterans”
Isn’t this a violation of his bail terms in, like, three jurisdictions? He committed a crime while out on bail.
Him and his band of deplorables
What I don’t understand is why so many members of the military, past and present, support this dickhead.
Being called a sucker and a loser wasnt enough I suppose. Having the Medal of Honor defamed wasn’t enough.
That’s a bad look.
Sharing this link because it is moving and shows what goes on behind the scenes at Arlington. Really highlights the reverence the staff have for this place, and what a blasphemy this opportunistic PR stunt was.
[https://charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-the-hardest-job-in-arlington](https://charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-the-hardest-job-in-arlington)
Found on another Arlington thread this morning, deserves to be added to every single Arlington thread on reddit, fb, whatever.
Is this really a big deal? The dude instigated an insurrection.
Well put. I hope more veterans speak up and share with other vets.
The man is obviously rotten to the core of his very soul.
I’m a combat veteran too. Using the gravestones of dead veterans for campaign event props is fucking disgusting. I cannot believe any veteran supports this guy.
Disgusting waste of human life to ever walk the planet earth. Let’s all get together and vote this slug to oblivion and once again Americans can rise up together. One for all, all for one.
Ive never had any family members in the military but even I can tell that what Dump did was egregiously wrong. People hate the progressives so much that they’re willing to go all in on someone as stupid and awful as the Grand Cheeto.
And that’s despite the fact that most progressives actually want to help the folks who’ve been kicked to the curb by our economic system.
Kelly also confirmed that in another conversation on the same trip, Trump called the Marines who died at [Belleau Wood](https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Belleau-Wood) “suckers” for getting killed.
[“Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever as a metaphor for the national honor we must pay toward our fallen servicemembers?”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Daly)
My 8th grade class went to ANC and we never did what him and his handlers did. What they did was beyond shameful and makes my blood boil.
It’s not even that it’s specifically a veteran’s cemetery, it’s that someone would be grinning and giving a thumbs up while standing on anyone’s grave that’s so inappropriate and bizarre.
I’ve been saying for nearly a decade now: Trump doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t care about me. He doesn’t care about America. He only cares about one thing and that is Donald Trump. Respect is a foreign concept to the guy. He will do whatever he wants whenever he wants if he thinks it will benefit him in any way whatsoever. There is no shame in the man. He will piss on a fallen soldier’s tombstone if he feels the end result will benefit him. How anyboidy sees him any differently is beyond me.
I’m not surprised that Veterans are speaking out about this, but what about Republicans or more specifically MAGA?
What kind of human being stands next to the grave of a fallen soldier and gives a big grin and thumbs up?
Truly makes me nauseous
So he’s going to get away with it?
The backbone of the USA are the Armed Forces, imagine what would happen without them. We need respect and not a clown making advantage for political stunt.
Aren’t we all just so fucking sick of this malignant narcissist’s bullshit by now. This election shouldn’t even be close.
After all the times Trump has insulted and disrespected the milliary and veterans, will *this* finally be the thing that causes him to lose support from them?
Trump ‘thumbs upped’ while standing on a veteran’s grave. Mind you, a veteran that he otherwise thinks is a sucker and a loser.
So…trying to steal the election with a fake elector scheme, sending idiots to the attack the capital to cause delay so his fake electors could be delivered, and to give him more time to convince/threaten the Vice President to accept his fake electors in order to overthrow the government and the will of the people wasn’t insulting enough? And refused the peaceful transfer of power ffs. I mean, there’s only video, audio, text messages, and the documentation to prove what that traitor did.
Should’ve escaped that cult long ago tbh!
Such a heartbreaking read.
Somebody start the clock for this guy being openly ridiculed by some MAGA nut for not being military enough to have a claim to being called a “veteran.”
Might even be Vance.
It is beyond frustrating that this petulant, weak, incontinent, evil bastard is able to walk around doing whatever the fuck he wants just because everyone who COULD do something – won’t. And everyone that WANTS to do something can’t.
He should have been in prison long before he ran for president. He should have been in prison for what he did in 2016 to help undermine our election process. He should have been in prison for what he did to undermine the election in 2020. He should have been in prison for what he caused in 2021. He should have been in prison for what he kept in 2021. He should be in prison for this shit right here.
He has zero respect for our country’s laws.
None for its average citizens.
None for its veterans and soldiers.
None for his own voters.
None for his staff or his family.
He only cares about himself and we should put him in a place where he can simply do that – love himself and keep to himself. Four walls and hard bed ought to do it, but he’ll probably continue to walk free.
Harris and Walz need to win. We need to help where we can. We are not going back to this fool.
Bad thing about it he denied he didn’t know it was against the law and was made aware of it but still posted it on social media anyway. Go ahead and post it and if I get confronted I’ll say I didn’t know anything about it or who posted it.🤡
My neighbors have been flying their stupid maga flags for weeks and my other neighbor who is quiet and keeps to himself put up an American flag and a US Army flag this morning. I have a feeling this is a subtle dig at the Maga idiots since he has never flown a us flag or army flag since I lived here. He has only mentioned once that he served and clearly it’s not his identity.
I think Trump has lost a lot of votes with this stunt at Arlington
Any service-member, retired or active, who votes for Trump has absolutely no sense. Trump has shown over and over again he doesnt care for any part of the military. Not only that he literally makes fun of them.
As the saying goes, fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. But what about getting fooled 10+ times? Oh yeah youre now part of a cult and have no morals or integrity.
Everything he does is insulting.
And yet, millions of military personnel and vets will vote for him…
I’m seeing all this outrage over Trump’s Arlington cemetery stunt. I honestly don’t recall this level of outrage when Trump repeatedly insulted veterans or veterans family members in the past. Don’t most veterans lean right and still worship this clown?