After his campaign’s staffers “abruptly pushed aside” an official at Arlington National Cemetery and ignored rules prohibiting political activity on its grounds, President Donald Trump is pushing back, saying he was the victim of a smear campaign from “bad people” out of Washington.
“Those incredible parents … asked me to go yesterday to Arlington, and I did,” Trump said at a rally Thursday in Michigan. (He was actually at the cemetery on Monday.)
“And while I was there, I was there for a long time. … While we were there, they said: ‘Could you take pictures over the grave of my son, my sister, my brother, would you take pictures with, us sir?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ I did. Then I said farewell, I said goodbye.”
NPR first reported details of an “altercation” between Trump’s aides and the unnamed cemetery worker on Monday. Trump was there to hold a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the third anniversary of an attack on an airport in Kabul that killed 13 American service members, amid the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Arlington, a 639-acre national cemetery in Virginia that holds many American military casualties, has strict restrictions on political campaigning or election-related activities. Officials have reiterated that Trump’s team were informed of those rules, notably around an area called Section 60, which is reserved for those recently killed.
“Last night I read that I was using the site to politic, that I used it to politic,” Trump said on Thursday night. “This all comes out of Washington, just like all these prosecutors come out of Washington. … These are bad people we’re dealing with.”
The Army said on Thursday the Arlington official pushed by the Trump campaign staffers would not press charges and that cemetery officials considered the matter closed.
“This employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption,” the Army said in a statement. “This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”
Trump on Thursday went on to directly blame President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival for president, for the deaths of the service members killed in Afghanistan, saying the Democrats’ actions were far worse than “having a picture taken at a tombstone.”
“Joe Biden killed their children by incompetence. Should’ve never happened,” Trump said. “Kamala killed their children, just as though they had a gun in their hand, by gross incompetence.”
“And then they accuse me of having a picture taken at the tombstone with a family because they love the president,” he added. “They love me and I love them.”
Trump has repeatedly faced criticism over remarks he’s made about service members. Recently, he told a billionaire GOP donor the Presidential Medal of Freedom he bestowed on her — the nation’s highest civilian honour — was “much better” than its military equivalent, the Medal of Honour.
He also reportedly made comments in 2020 that Americans who died in World War I were “suckers” and “losers.” He has refuted those claims, although a former top aide has since attested to them.