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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump was on the defensive Sunday (September 6) for what critics said was a “pattern” of disrespect for the US military. Following media reports from communication that he had disparaged fallen veterans, the consequences of which could damage his campaign for re-election on November 3.
Both Democratic and Republican opponents took advantage over the weekend of reports, which said Trump had called US soldiers buried in Europe “losers,” to attack their military record in news programs and political ads.
“It breaks your heart,” US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of comments reported in an interview on MSNBC on Sunday.
The furor over the Sept. 3 report in The Atlantic could undermine Trump’s re-election message that he would uphold law and order amid nationwide protests, and that he strongly supports U.S. military personnel and their families, an electorate. Key Republican who largely backed Trump in 2016..
Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a Republican, told ABC’s “This Week” that the statements, if true, were “despicable.”
Hagel said the reports were “credible” because they were consistent with previous public comments Trump had made denigrating military personnel, including former US Defense Secretary James Mattis.
It will “resonate” with the military, he added.
Retired US Army Colonel Jeff McCausland wrote in an NBC News op-ed on Sunday that Trump over the years had demonstrated “a clear pattern of disrespect for the military.”
The Atlantic reported that Trump made the disparaging remarks after canceling a visit to an American cemetery during a trip to France in November 2018, an account the president denied Thursday and said Sunday was “disinformation.”
“They will say anything, like your recent lies about me and the military, and hope it sticks,” he tweeted, referring to the media and the Democratic Party, whose candidate Joe Biden is running for the presidency in November.
The Atlantic stood firm in its report, which cited four anonymous people with first-hand knowledge of the matter and was later confirmed by various other news outlets.
Bloomberg reported Sunday that Trump spent additional free time in Paris selecting artwork to send from the residence of the U.S. ambassador to the White House. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the Bloomberg report.
Former Vice President Biden, whose late son Beau served in Iraq, took advantage of the uproar Sunday to highlight his own record of military support with an ad targeting heavily manned areas in battlefield states.
The ad will air nationwide on Sunday night during cable television news shows and on Facebook and Instagram throughout the week as part of a larger $ 47 million campaign, a spokesperson told Reuters on Sunday.
The Lincoln Project, a prominent Republican-backed group opposed to Trump’s reelection, released a new video Saturday attacking the president’s comments and a broader record on the military. Trump has never complied with and avoided draft for the Vietnam War, citing bone spurs on his feet.
“He is a chief evader who despises the men and women he supposedly leads. He insults their deaths and injuries with his contempt,” he said.
MILITARY EXPENSES
Trump has repeatedly touted his administration’s spending on the military as he mobilizes to pull American troops out of conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan, as well as allied countries like Germany.
More recently, he has said he would block the Pentagon’s plan to cut military health care by $ 2.2 billion and reverse his plan to shut down the Stars and Stripes military newspaper.
Trump’s main voters have forgiven him in the past for his derisive comments on McCain and other issues, but there are signs that support among active duty military personnel for their commander-in-chief may be waning.
A Military Times poll of more than 1,000 active duty members conducted between late July and early August and published last week, ahead of the latest reports, showed declining support for Trump and a slight preference for Biden.
Several senior administration officials, including US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, have rallied in Trump’s defense as the controversy has grown in recent days.
On Sunday, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he had never heard the president disparage the military or veterans. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters at the White House that Trump supported the military “100%.”
