MORE BROKEN RULES AND NORMS: TRUMP’S ARLINGTON CEMETERY FIASCO
Norm’s restaurants are an iconic tradition here in Southern California. The way things are going, any day I expect Donald Trump to break into Norm’s. Why? Donald Trump is a norm breaking machine. And he has yet to suffer any real consequences.
The latest norm – and rule – breaking controversy swirling around Trump is the decision by him and his campaign to honor 13 fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. Ostensibly, the idea was for Trump, who has long disparaged the military, to show up at Arlington cemetery to show his respect for the war dead.
But then more facts started coming to light – including the fact that Team Trump was told by an employee that the cemetery is non-political and photo ops aren’t allowed there.
Then more facts came to light:
1. The actual idea for this visit wasn’t to honor the dead. It was to do this as a private event then blast Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris for not being there.
2. The female employee who tried to stop the Trump group from politicizing Arlington National Cemetery was insulted and shoved aside.
3. The Trump campaign used footage from the event for a TikTok video featuring Trump’s voice and music.
4. The employee who was shoved aside didn’t press charges because she feared the reaction of Trump supporters.
5. The Trump campaign responded by saying she had mental issues.
6. The Army issued a blunt rebuke on Trump’s visit and defended the employee.
7. House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled the strings to get Trump in to do the clearly political event.
Charlie Sykes in The Atlantic:
Trump was at Arlington ostensibly to honor the memory of the 13 service members who were killed in a suicide bombing during the chaotic final days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The event was supposed to be respectful and private; according to a press-pool note, the families of the troops had asked that there be no media coverage in the area where the service members were buried. But Trump seemed to have other ideas.
According to a report by NPR, Trump’s campaign staff got into a verbal and physical altercation with a cemetery official who tried to stop campaign staffers from filming and taking photographs in the area of the cemetery reserved for recently fallen soldiers. The cemetery confirmed that an incident took place on Monday but did not provide any details, instead noting in a statement that federal law prohibits “political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries.” The Trump-campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement that “there was no physical altercation as described,” and added in a post on X that Trump had been allowed a private photographer on the premises. But in his statement, Cheung also accused the cemetery official who’d tried to block Trump’s staff of “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.”
It’s hard to see Trump’s Monday visit as anything but a campaign stop intended to court the military vote. Speaking to a group of National Guard members in Detroit later that day, he blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the failures of the Afghanistan withdrawal. By now, Trump’s use of the military as a prop for his own ends should surprise no one. Despite his vigorous avoidance of military service, Trump has a long history of denigrating the service of others, even as he poses as a defender of the nation’s military. As a candidate for the Republican nomination in 2015, he mocked Senator John McCain’s status as a prisoner of war. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said at the time. “I like people who weren’t captured.”
Later, as president, he told his then–chief of staff John Kelly that he didn’t want “any wounded guys” in his planned Independence Day parade: “This doesn’t look good for me.” Recently, he suggested that the civilian Medal of Freedom is “actually much better” than the military’s Medal of Honor, “because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that’s soldiers, they’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”
[…]Monday’s wreath-laying at Arlington was, in part, Trump’s attempt to clean up the mess he has created, and to establish some credibility as a champion of men- and women-at-arms. But in the end, it merely served to remind Americans how little he understands about service, sacrifice, and heroism.
However, even that omits two things:
1. Donald Trump continues to have no consequences when he breaks norms, ignores rules, or breaks the law.
2. As Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch notes, the media has already blown the 2024 Presidential election. NPR broke the story, social media followed it closely, and then the mainstream media picked it up.
"The Trump campaign defended its bullying of an Arlington Cemetery official…A spokesman groundlessly asserted she was 'suffering from a mental health episode.'…The routine slander of individuals and groups is part of the essence of the movement."https://t.co/jZyRDkkeYx
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) August 29, 2024
In case you missed it:
The Trump campaign’s plan was to stage a fake ceremony at Arlington, pretend it was public, and then condemn VP Harris for not showing up.
The US Army has now issued a statement condemning their actions.
In a sane world, this would be campaign ending.
— Skyler Johnson (@SkylerforNY) August 29, 2024
News –> Sen Tim Kaine is calling on Army to provide its incident report on Trump campaign's Arlington fiasco.
“As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I am troubled by the reporting and want to see the incident report," he says.
Senators demanding report is next step here
— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) August 29, 2024
Media was fine letting Trump use Arlington Cemetery as a photo op until NPR, to its credit, worked sources to get the story. Trump's team lied about *every relevant fact* of what happened and now the Army's involved. Trump is who he is but the media failures are glaring https://t.co/cXOr7x4t56
— scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) August 29, 2024
TRUMP: (desecrates the final resting place of fallen United States soldiers)
MEDIA: Kamala Harris Didn’t List Her High School Job at McDonald’s on Her Resume to Be a Law Clerk
— Ben Wexler (@mrbenwexler) August 29, 2024
Trump must apologize and cease using the images and videos he illegally and inappropriately captured in Arlington’s Section 60.
The Trump staffers who abused the Arlington employee must be fired immediately.
None of this will come to pass, but I wanted to remind you what a… https://t.co/dj4RxfBiKo
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) August 29, 2024
It's Trump vs the US Army.
I'm siding with the Army. https://t.co/kwbBhUVabY— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) August 29, 2024
I have never witnessed an entire branch of the U.S. military release a statement regarding a presidential candidate desecrating a national cemetery. Do you know how egregious of an act you have to carry out to piss off the military? If you've offended the Army, you messed up. https://t.co/4IWK0fQnZl
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) August 29, 2024
Everything about the Trump Arlington story is bananas, but maybe the *most* bananas part was the actual plan itself: to secretly film a fake established memorial event & then claim Harris refused to attend. https://t.co/p36H5tXjzg pic.twitter.com/eqCV7lHU97
— Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly (@RTodKelly) August 29, 2024
I strongly urge you to click on this NPR link about the Trump campaign's disrespectful actions at Arlington National Cemetery.
Just click on the link, see what happens. https://t.co/ozcvXZiADP— Jay Bookman (@jaysbookman) August 29, 2024
Goes to show how damaging this story is to the Trump campaign… https://t.co/OtXFDhbWNm
— Christian Vanderbrouk ?? (@UrbanAchievr) August 29, 2024
X is the home of free speech https://t.co/ilMRqAdQkd
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) August 29, 2024
My GOD. Trump PLANNED in advance to stage a FAKE memorial at Arlington, film it in violation of the law, then attack Kamala Harris for not showing up. Knowing it was against the rules, his staff then PUSHED a woman out of the way and derided her as MENTALLY ILL, and then LIED…
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) August 29, 2024
It has to be noted how rare a statement like this from the Army is. I covered the Army for 4 years and not sure I can recall something similar https://t.co/Nw62QJcz4F
— Haley Britzky (@halbritz) August 29, 2024
Marine and former WSJ reporter ——> https://t.co/1mAIJRdSMK
— John Aravosis ???????? (@aravosis) August 29, 2024
New: US Army issued a stark rebuke of Trump campaign staff over the incident on Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, saying in a statement participants in the ceremony “were made aware of federal laws” regarding political activity at the cemetery, and “abruptly pushed aside” an…
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) August 29, 2024
Everything about the Trump Arlington story is bananas, but maybe the *most* bananas part was the actual plan itself: to secretly film a fake established memorial event & then claim Harris refused to attend. https://t.co/p36H5tXjzg pic.twitter.com/eqCV7lHU97
— Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly (@RTodKelly) August 29, 2024
Absolute disgrace.
Someone in Trump’s camp physically pushed the FEMALE Arlington National Cemetery employee who was trying to enforce federal law, Army regulations, and DoD policies.
Then they attacked her in a statement to the press, saying she was having a mental episode. https://t.co/mqNEisIJkC
— Angry Staffer ? (@Angry_Staffer) August 29, 2024
Republicans might’ve hoped Trump's Arlington National Cemetery scandal would be a one-day story. I have some bad news for them. https://t.co/n5xgQI0wIB
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen) August 29, 2024
It's clear that some news outlets do not fully grasp the significance of what Trump did at Arlington. On Monday, only ONE journalist raised questions about Trump being there in the first place. Other news orgs just let Trump play pretend president with no questions asked. 1/ pic.twitter.com/toL3f4s3sU
— Jennifer Schulze (@NewsJennifer) August 29, 2024
Who's gonna tell him?
“You guys in the media, you're acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a gravesite,” Vance said.https://t.co/LNW6oNgzdx
— Tom Watson (@tomwatson) August 29, 2024
Officials from Arlington National Cemetery and the military hoped clear rules would avoid a damaging public spat with Donald Trump. Instead, they got sucked into exactly the kind of crisis they were hoping to avoid. https://t.co/xnpuYzOwyq
— Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) August 29, 2024
My god https://t.co/Wm88uP5Hr5
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) August 29, 2024
Veterans ‘Furious’ at Trump Campaign https://t.co/3p6Y9OjmZL via @politicalwire
— John Avlon (@JohnAvlon) August 29, 2024
so Speaker of the House intervened to help Trump break the law. I’m not sure that’s good. https://t.co/awONxZheW3
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 29, 2024
NEW
The family of a Green Beret who died by suicide after serving eight combat tours and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery expressed concern on Wednesday that Donald J. Trump’s campaign had filmed his gravesite without permission as Mr. Trump stood in an area where… pic.twitter.com/hgFZ5SrB5v
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 29, 2024
Arlington Cemetery is hallowed ground. The estate where it stands was founded by George Washington's family. Robert E. Lee married into the family and his wife owned it. It stands on high ground over Washington D.C. and Virginia so when the Lees abandoned the property during… pic.twitter.com/IkqbgKbjJL
— TheRealThelmaJohnson (@TheRealThelmaJ1) August 28, 2024
Trump and his annoying posse of Stephen Miller types show up at Arlington to make political TikToks and when a worker tries to stop them, as it’s illegal, his miscreants get physical. Then the worker doesn’t press charges out of fear of retribution. Trump is an f’ing mob boss.
— Mr. Newberger (@jeremynewberger) August 29, 2024
Relatives of Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano issued their statement two days after Mr. Trump’s visit, which also included a confrontation between members of the Trump… pic.twitter.com/PT2v2GHdtw
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) August 29, 2024
script>
It didn’t shake the world. It disgusted decent people who believe Arlington Cemetery shouldn’t be used for political purposes. https://t.co/s4RsjBUimK
— Michael Freeman (@michaelpfreeman) August 29, 2024
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