DELRAY BEACH, FLa. (AP) — A new report alleges multiple instances of President Donald Trump making disparaging remarks about members of the U.S. military who have been captured or killed, including referring to the American war dead at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as “losers” and “suckers.”
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The allegations were first reported in The Atlantic. A senior Defense Department official with firsthand knowledge of events confirmed some of the remarks to The Associated Press, including the 2018 cemetery comments.
The defense official said Trump made the comments as he begged off visiting the cemetery outside Paris during a meeting following his presidential daily briefing on the morning of Nov. 10, 2018.
Staffers from the National Security Council and the Secret Service told Trump that rainy weather made helicopter travel to the cemetery risky, but they could drive there. Trump responded by saying he didn’t want to visit the cemetery because it was “filled with losers,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The White House blamed the canceled visit on poor weather at the time.
In another conversation on the trip, The Atlantic said, Trump referred to the 1,800 Marines who died in the World War I battle of Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.
White House Press Sec. Kayleigh McEnany was quick to push back on the report, calling it “garbage.”
I see President @realDonaldTrump consistently express his heartfelt gratitude and absolute admiration for our brave men and women in uniform.
Just yesterday, he was truly humbled to be in the presence of our courageous World War II veterans.
This Atlantic story is garbage!
— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) September 4, 2020
“This report is patently false,” said White House strategic communications director Alyssa Farah. “President Trump holds the military in the highest regard. He’s demonstrated his commitment to them at every turn: delivering on his promise to give our troops a much needed pay raise, increasing military spending, signing critical veterans reforms, and supporting military spouses. These nameless anecdotes have no basis in fact and are offensive fiction.”
Trump 2020 National Press Secretary J.Hogan Hidley also responded in kind, calling the attack by The Atlantic “disgusting, grotesque, reprehensible lies”.
My response to the horrible lies from anonymous “sources” in the Atlantic: pic.twitter.com/uHtgJvrwCb
— J. Hogan Gidley (@JHoganGidley) September 4, 2020
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday, “If the revelations in today’s Atlantic article are true, then they are yet another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the President of the United States.”
“Duty, honor, country — those are the values that drive our service members,” he said in a statement Thursday night, adding that if he is elected president, “I will ensure that our American heroes know that I will have their back and honor their sacrifice — always.” Biden’s son Beau served in Iraq in 2008-09.
In response to The Atlantic reporting that Pres. Trump dishonored soliders who died in war by calling them "losers" & "suckers," @JoeBiden said that if the details are true "then they are yet another marker of how deeply Pres. Trump & I disagree about the role of the President." pic.twitter.com/z0krlfFvFe
— Marianna Sotomayor (@MariannaNBCNews) September 4, 2020
Keith Kellogg, national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, tweeted Thursday: “The Atlantic story is completely false. Absolutely lacks merit. I’ve been by the President’s side. He has always shown the highest respect to our active duty troops and veterans with utmost respect paid to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice and those wounded in battle.”
The Atlantic story is completely false. Absolutely lacks merit. I’ve been by the President’s side. He has always shown the highest respect to our active duty troops and veterans with utmost respect paid to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice and those wounded in battle.
— Keith Kellogg (@generalkellogg) September 3, 2020
Later on, President Trump himself denied the allegations in a series of tweets.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1301710818267074560
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1301710819349204992
The Atlantic report is completely consistent with everything else we know about Trump’s character. Totally believable. Trump s utterly unfit to be president.
We’ll see. In time there will be witness or recording that will bubble to the surface.
This must be Sheker V’Chazav!
It is impossible that our dear leader, who publicly denigrated the sacrifices of highly revered soldiers and statesmen who sacrificed for the good of our Entire Country could possibly have spoken this way about the sacrifice and service of rank and file veterans. I simply cannot be M’Kabel! He loves veterans, he wishes they were goosestepping in parades in front of him like in the Alte Heim. Who are we kidding, we know who this man is at his core, it’s a con, and like all good cons, it starts with a promise of something so good, we won’t know what to do with ourselves (winning so much these days, we are). Ultimately, it will end like every other con, ‘How could we have been so foolish as to buy-in?’.
The only question left is how much damage will be done before people finally wake up?
Ok he doesn’t respect people who died protecting us. He doesnt like other countries. But he certainly is a present that actually likes the voting American people and does everything to keep our economy up.
I bet before nov 3 the stock market will go higher than it was in Jan/Feb. Good luck to get anything out of bendable Biden.
From the washington post. No it is not sheker.
I do not think the lawyers from the Washington post and The Atlantic would Print such an article if it were not true. Everything gets vetted.
from a new, separate WaPo story:
“the president told senior advisers that he didn’t understand why the U.S. gov’t placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action because they had performed poorly & gotten caught & deserved what they got”
If recordings of the President saying such a thing surfaced in time, would such a thing change many voters’ minds?
You have to be mentally deficient to really believe this.
More bs from the fake new propagandist media with their bs anonymous sources, they just keep lying about the president day in day out and say they have anonymous sources so nothing can ever be independently verified, if any of the Atlantic’s reporting were true it would have came out 2 years ago.
This is nothing but a lie! We have seen over the last 4 years how he has treated veterans! And we saw how Biden and Obama treated veterans like trash! As for McCain he was a prisoner of war that’s true but a “songbird” who got better treatment! Then he tried for years to block the efforts of the USA to get possible prisoners and the dead back from Vietnam… is that a hero??? This happened over 2 years ago hearing about it now yeah right! Donald Trump can’t scratch his you know what without the mainstream press covering it over and over and over! Do we know this is a lie! Anonymous sources! LOL lie!!! And Biden saying his don served how proud he was of him and Trump disparaging him again LOL he was dishonorably discharged for drug use ! LOL Lies Lies like Russia stories!!! Lies! Lies!
Coming from a 5 time draft dodger who said that he wasn’t a “fan” of the Vietnam war I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true. Remember what he said about John McCain.
I don’t know anything about what the President did or did not say, but the sad part is that those elitist and bureaucrats in WWI treated the lives of soldiers like fodder and as playthings. As example, Canadian Elsworth Young. He lied about his age (he was 15) in order to enlist. Four years later, when he was a little late returning from leave, he was actually executed by a British firing for alleged desertion. Entire regiments were led to the slaughter by idiotic commands and even more idiotic attack plans.
In all probability, this shameful story is likely true. On Armistice Day, 2018, in France, Trump did not want to make the long trip by car to northeastern France to visit that cemetery; the weather was bad, and his helicopter could not fly. There was also dense fog in the area. He felt pressured and was undoubtedly in a foul mood, and started mouthing off. If he can make sexually suggestive comments to Sarah Sanders (who is a very religious Christian woman), about Kim Jong Un, even when she told him to stop, then it wouldn’t take much for him to make such despicable remarks about dead soldiers. In fact, he bad mouthed several living decorated American soldiers and marines who worked for him, but had policy disagreements on policy with him (namely General Kelly, General Mathis, and General McMaster). Anyone who disagrees with him, becomes a persona non grata, as far as he is concerned. Also, I’ve learned from past events, that the more that Trump denies that something occurred, it means that it probably occurred.
Yes, he has done a lot of good for veterans by revamping the VA, and helping soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and Coast Guard veterans. However, in spite of the above, his mouth seems to get the better of him, at times.
Do you deny the foul things he said about HERO JOHN MCCAIN? US NAVY PILOT, US SENATOR, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. HERO. trumpf=traitor, bully, rasha, coward.
McCain the sore loser… the pusher of the dossier.. the Obamacare upholder… the bizarre loser..
I see Fox is reporting it has confirmed the story.