Donald Trump’s team assaulted an Arlington Nat’l Cemetery official over a photo-op

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On Monday, Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery, where hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and servicewomen are buried. Trump thinks people who serve in the military are suckers and losers. He hates veterans and despises everyone in the Armed Services. So why did he go to Arlington? Politics. The Trump Brain Trust thought it would be a good idea to politicize a wreath-laying ceremony for the 13 servicemen and women killed in the Kabul bombing just before the US withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. Trump was there purely for the photo-op, and he even smiled and gave a thumbs-up at a gravesite. As it turns out, when an Arlington official tried to stop the crass political photo-op, Trump’s people assaulted the Arlington official.

Two members of Donald Trump’s campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery, where the former president participated in a wreath-laying ceremony, NPR has learned.

A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.

When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.

Trump participated in an event to mark the third anniversary of a deadly attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan as U.S. forces withdrew from the country; 13 U.S. service members were killed in the attack. The Trump campaign has blamed President Biden and Vice President Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, for the chaotic withdrawal.

In a statement to NPR, Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s spokesman, strongly rejected the notion of a physical altercation, adding: “We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.

“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” Cheung said in the statement.

The Trump campaign declined to make that footage immediately available.

In a statement to NPR, Arlington National Cemetery said it “can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.”

[From NPR]

Don’t worry, I’m including the mind-numbingly grotesque photos below. Some of the gold-star family members were also smiling and doing thumbs-up too. Both things can be true – gold-star families deserve respect and grace, and MAGA cult members are absolutely deranged. I’m sure Arlington officials tried to stop this and they were assaulted for their trouble. This is disgusting.

There are of course about 10 million things wrong with Donald Trump but last week he visited Arlington cemetery and stood among the graves of fallen soldiers and responded with a big smiling thumbs up… He is a complete psycopath. pic.twitter.com/rwkCzgnNeR

— moby XⓋX (@thelittleidiot) August 27, 2024

The real question about Trump’s Arlington Cemetery visit is … what kind of a sociopath gives a smiling thumbs up in a graveyard? pic.twitter.com/r1qeq8VOyE

— Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) (@speechboy71) August 28, 2024

Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red and social media.