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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump referred to US Marines buried in a World War I graveyard in France as “losers” and “fools” for being killed in action, according to a report published Thursday in Atlantic magazine.
The report, written by the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, said that Trump had refused to visit the Aisne-Marne American cemetery near Paris in 2018 because he “feared his hair would unravel in the rain,” though the official explanation offered. by the assistants was that the helicopter that had to take him there could not fly due to the weather.
“In a conversation with senior officials on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, ‘Why should I go to that cemetery? He’s full of losers, ‘”the article read.
“In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as ‘fools’ for being killed,” the Atlantic added, citing four anonymous people who said they had knowledge of first hand of the discussions. .
Trump and his team criticized the report.
The president refuted the article “in very emphatic terms,” Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters. “He was more offended by them.”
White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah said on Twitter that the allegations were “offensive and patently false,” while Trump’s campaign press secretary Hogan Gidley called them “disgusting, grotesque and reprehensible lies. “.
“I was there in Paris and the president never said those things … These weak, pathetic and cowardly ‘sources’ in the background do not have the courage or the decency to put their names on these false accusations because they know how completely ridiculous they are,” Gidley. it said in a statement.
However, some critics pointed to Trump’s disparaging remarks about the late Senator John McCain, who was captured in Vietnam and widely regarded as a war hero.
Trump said in the run-up to the 2016 election: “He is not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t caught. “
About 1,800 US Marines died at the Battle of Belleau Wood, slowing down a German advance toward Paris in 1918.
According to The Atlantic, Trump asked his assistants on his trip to France: “Who were the good guys in this war?” and he could not understand why the United States had come to the aid of the Allies.
Joe Biden, Trump’s rival in the November 3 election, said in a statement that if the allegations in the article are true, “then they are another indicator of how deeply President Trump and I disagree on the role of the president of the United States. U.S.
“If I have the honor to serve as the next commander-in-chief, I will make sure our American heroes know that I will stand behind them and honor their sacrifice, always,” said Biden.
