Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump lays a wreath alongside Marine Cpl. Kelsee Lainhart (Ret.), who was injured at the Abbey Gate Bombing, during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 26, 2024 in Arlington, Virginia. Monday marks three years since the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed 13 American service members. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images)
It was surprising – no, actually, it wasn’t – to see Donald Trump take full political advantage of an Arlington National Cemetery ceremony to mark the third anniversary of the humiliating American pullout from Afghanistan and evacuation from the Kabul airport. But then the previous two years weren’t election years.
Monday, Trump took center stage at the cemetery after being invited to attend a wreath-laying ceremony by some Gold Star families to honor the 11 Marines, one Navy corpsman and one soldier who died at the hands of a suicide bomber during the frantic episode.
We know that more than 2,400 American military personnel died in America’s Afghan conflict, but the final deaths have taken on a particular significance, an ignoble coda to the nation’s longest war.
Trump’s penchant for cameras on him marred the solemnity of the day, as did the TikTok videos he posted afterward. Always eager for exposure, he was not accompanying the blast survivors or relatives of the deceased as the wreathes were laid but rather came across as having them accompany him.
Trump then turned the hallowed Section 60 area of the cemetery into a prohibited photo opportunity for himself, smiling with a grin and his signature thumbs up, a situation likely ginned up by his publicity team that for many military veterans, active military and families and American citizens, further diminished the solemnity of the day.
Prior to the Trump campaign stop, er, visit, to Arlington, guidance on cemetery protocol was provided to the candidate’s team stating that, “Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Ceremonies, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purpose, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign.”
Since rules and laws applicable to other people don’t necessarily affect the Trump team, a last-minute effort by a cemetery staffer to prevent the photography at gravesites resulted in some sort of scuffle with the Trump team. And to no one’s surprise, Trump’s acerbic spokesman Steven Cheung put the blame elsewhere: “An unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode.” Really, Steve? That was a quick diagnosis.
Trump and his entourage then flew to Detroit for the annual conference of the National Guard Association of the United States that traditionally invites each major party candidate to speak during a presidential election year.
After being introduced by musician hanger-on Kid Rock who Trump brought along, about six minutes into his remarks, he pulled a rabbit from his hat in the form of a first-ever blatant political endorsement to occur during such a speech – a shock to the NGAUS leadership. According to a person at NGAUS headquarters, “The Tulsi Gabbard thing” was a surprise to organizers. The campaign previously informed NGAUS it wanted to bring 10 “special guests” to the event, a courtesy approved but despite requests for names of those 10, none were disclosed.
Trump himself called one of the 10 mystery guests, Tulsi Gabbard, a former Iowa National Guard officer and U.S representative from Hawaii to the podium so she could give a seven-minute soliloquy endorsing him.
In possibly the longest-running set of remarks to this audience, Trump rambled on for another 45 minutes vowing to do what only he could do if he is re-elected including “sealing the border” in a single day to instilling world peace. No mention of when the check from Mexico would arrive.
All-in-all, it was quite a day on the military “ropes,” as it is called in political campaigning, for a guy who:
Got five deferments from being drafted during Vietnam.
Ridiculed national hero and Vietnam POW John McCain, later a U.S. senator.
Didn’t want to be photographed in the company of military amputees because it “didn’t look good for him.”
Picks a fight with grieving Gold Star parents who oppose him.
And equates the civilian Presidential Medal of Freedom given to a billionaire political donor of his with the Medal of Honor, since the military decoration is preferable because it is awarded to only to military members “in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”
So it is clear that bullies can barge in where they want and intimidate to get their own way in situations some might consider not such a “big deal.”
But keep in mind that bullies don’t know where to stop in getting what they want. Right now Trump is trying to bully himself into becoming the most powerful president in U.S. history.