He’s referred to as deceased veterans “losers” and “suckers,” in line with his former chief of workers. President Donald Trump is fast to encompass himself with the accoutrements of patriotism — American flags, Lee Greenwood, singer of the saccharine ballad “God Bless the usA” — however as soon as requested that wounded troopers be unnoticed of army parades.
And just lately, the president was roundly criticized after he skipped a dignified switch of 4 American troopers killed in a coaching train in favor of a Saudi-sponsored golf match at considered one of his golf programs in Florida.
On Wednesday, Trump met with a bunch of injured American veterans, fitted with prosthetic limbs, within the Oval Workplace and as soon as once more exhibited his obvious unease round true heroes.
“So that you guys acquired hit, huh? Fairly good,” the president stated Wednesday after one of many troopers knowledgeable him they have been stationed at a “fairly robust space within the Arghandab River Valley” of Afghanistan. “You bought hit. Superb.”
Many on social media have been dumbfounded by Trump’s disjointed response.
“While you’re incapable of empathy you simply say dumb sh-t like this and don’t even realize it,” wrote one X account holder.
One other famous how the troopers “misplaced their legs in order that we may elect an authoritarian chief. We must always all really feel ashamed that Trump is president.”
Requested later about whether or not he can guarantee veterans that price range cuts made to the Veterans Administration received’t adversely have an effect on their remedy, Trump mentioned his excessive approval rankings with, presumably, members of the army.
“It’s been higher with me than any president in historical past,” he stated. “We had a 92 p.c approval score, which is extraordinary, up 50 factors from the earlier administration, in my first 4 years, and we’re doing higher now.”
He stated his administration has “modernized remedy for veterans, “the place you don’t must journey generally lengthy distances to get to a clinic or the VA, earlier than returning to his ballot numbers.
“The approval rankings are the best … I’ve by no means heard numbers like this,” Trump bragged. “It’s higher than the primary 4 years.”
“There’s no group of individuals extra necessary than the folks on this room,” he concluded. “They’re going to be taken rather well care of. It’s essential to me.”
Trump has disputed claims that he doesn’t maintain any respect for the army. However his former chief of workers, retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, confirmed reporting in The Atlantic in 2020 that detailed disparaging feedback made throughout his first time period.
“An individual that thinks those that defend their nation in uniform, or are shot down or significantly wounded in fight, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ as a result of ‘there’s nothing in it for them,’” Kelly stated of Trump in a 2023 assertion.
“An individual that didn’t wish to be seen within the presence of army amputees as a result of ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ An individual who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star household — for all Gold Star households — on TV throughout the 2016 marketing campaign, and rants that our most treasured heroes who gave their lives in America’s protection are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t go to their graves in France.”
The Atlantic reported that Trump privately made damning statements in opposition to veterans together with the late Sen. John McCain, who had been a Vietnam prisoner of warfare, and former President George H.W. Bush, who was shot down as a Navy pilot in World Warfare II. Throughout his first marketing campaign for president in 2015, Trump declared the Arizona Republican McCain was solely thought of a warfare hero “as a result of he was captured.”
“I like individuals who weren’t captured,” he stated.
McCain endured almost six years of captivity in a Vietnamese POW camp after his airplane was shot down over Hanoi. After the North Vietnamese found McCain’s father had simply been named commander of all US Pacific forces, the communists supplied him an early launch, hoping to attain a propaganda victory. McCain refused the provide and stated he would solely settle for it if each man captured earlier than him was launched as effectively.
He was subsequently subjected to every day torture by the North Vietnamese that left him with everlasting accidents.
Trump prevented army service when a physician, alleged to have achieved in order a favor to Trump’s father, identified him with bone spurs, exempting him from the draft on the top of the Vietnam battle.
