Can a leopard change its spots on Memorial Day? Can all the negative things one might have said in the past about our military heroes, military life and military sacrifice be forgotten?
Perhaps by standing at attention, offering new-found faint
praise and pretending that anyone who disagrees with his own war policies now
that he is president is disrespect to our armed forces and traitors to our
country, Donald Trump is trusting that the Americans he has poured into combat
and those stateside whose votes he is in need of will forget.
We, however, need to remember the unkind things Mr. Trump
has said in private and in public, as a civilian and as America’s commander-in-chief.
On Memorial Day 2017 President Donald Trump made the
obligatory presidential visit to Arlington Cemetery in the company of General John
Kelly. There, in front of the grave of Kelly’s own son, Trump questioned why
anyone would sacrifice their life in battle. “I don’t get it. What’s in it for
them?”
One year later, according to General Kelly and three other
staff members who were present, Trump insisted on canceling a scheduled visit
to the American Cemetery in Paris to honor the Americans who gave their lives
in liberating France. “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with
losers.” He went on to refer to marines dying in France as “suckers.”
After returning from France, Trump asked Kelly to develop a
military parade to demonstrate to the world the strength of America’s military
hardware but advised Kelly not to include any wounded veterans in the parade.
According to Kelly, the following conversation commenced:
“Look, I don’t want any wounded guys in the parade,” Trump
insisted.
“Those are the heroes,” Kelly replied. “In our society,
there’s only one group of people who are more heroic than they are – and they
are buried over in Arlington.”
Trump didn’t care. “I don’t want them. It doesn’t look good
for me.”
General Mark Milley repeats a similar experience. At an
event honoring veterans, a veteran who survived war but his legs did not, was
introduced to Trump. Trump was harsh with Milley afterward, “Why do you bring
people like that here? No one wants to see that, see the wounded.” He ordered
his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to never repeat that offense.
There was an early clue that Trump had no respect for our
military heroes when on national television in 2015 he argued that John McCain,
who, when a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam was offered the opportunity to be
released from the POW camp because McCain’s father was an admiral, but refused
the North Vietnamese offer saying he did not deserve preferential treatment
over the other Americans in captivity, is “not a war hero…because he was
captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
While McCain did not defend himself against Trump’s
remarks, he did defend a Gold Star family that Trump was being hostile towards
in 2016 because the parents of a slain soldier were Muslim and they had made
public they would not be voting for Mr. Trump.
“In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier’s
parents. He has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in
the United States – to say nothing of his entering its service. I cannot
emphasize enough how strongly I disagree with Mr. Trump’s statement,” McCain
said. “I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views
of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates.”
There was an even earlier clue as to Trump’s disrespect for
military service and the risks of serving in the military. As a civilian,
during Vietnam, while interviewed by Howard Stern Trump shrugged off a soldier’s
risk of life in the conflict and narcissistically compared his wild sex life, moving
from female encounter to female encounter and the risks of exposure to sexually
transmitted diseases, to the dangers of a soldier under fire. He called his
hedonistic sex life “my Vietnam” and referred to himself as “a brave soldier.”
Those who smile when they see Trump hug the American flag
and read his tweets on how much he appreciates those fighting his war in Iran may
have difficulty questioning whether Trump can actually be this callous towards
those who have fallen. They then need to consider those who have actually been
in his presence who know firsthand. Here’s what Trump’s former communications
director Alyssa Griffin says:
“Despite publicly praising the
military and claiming to be the most pro-military president…Trump will
fundamentally never understand service the way those who have actually served
in uniform will, and it’s one of the countless reasons he’s unfit to be commander-in-chief,”
she stated after giving examples of his failure in her presence to have empathy
for those who serve and who have fallen.
Trump’s former Secretary of Defense
Mark Esper concludes “I think he’s unfit for office. He puts himself before the
country. His actions are all about him and not about the country.”
Trump’s former Chief-of-Staff General
Kelly sums it up as good as anyone when he not only concludes that Trump doesn’t
understand or respect those who have served and sacrificed, but that Trump also
“…is a person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what
America is all about.”
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