Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are 'Losers' and 'Suckers'

[Nevilledog]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/

When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.

Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” 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 “suckers” for getting killed.

Belleau Wood is a consequential battle in American history, and the ground on which it was fought is venerated by the Marine Corps. America and its allies stopped the German advance toward Paris there in the spring of 1918. But Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?” He also said that he didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies.

Trump’s understanding of concepts such as patriotism, service, and sacrifice have interested me since he expressed contempt for the war record of the late Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in 2015 while running for the Republican nomination for president. “I like people who weren’t captured.”

*snip*

[Cha]

1. More Military Families Should Know THIS. KR

[Thekaspervote]

2. Indeed..what an abomination that man is!!

[Cha]

17. KICK!

[dhill926]

3. is there a recording of this....

if so, it's time to go scorched earth on the fucker...

[Kingofalldems]

4. We need a recording.

[Submariner]

5. I would like to see Biden read those first 3 paragraphs on TV

and get this all over the news. Wait till Stars and Stripes get this. The Marines will go ballistic.

[dawg day]

6. We should send this article around-- I'm sending it to my nephew in the military-

On Memorial Day 2017, Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery, a short drive from the White House. He was accompanied on this visit by John Kelly, who was then the secretary of homeland security, and who would, a short time later, be named the White House chief of staff. The two men were set to visit Section 60, the 14-acre area of the cemetery that is the burial ground for those killed in America’s most recent wars. Kelly’s son Robert is buried in Section 60. A first lieutenant in the Marine Corps, Robert Kelly was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan. He was 29. Trump was meant, on this visit, to join John Kelly in paying respects at his son’s grave, and to comfort the families of other fallen service members. But according to sources with knowledge of this visit, Trump, while standing by Robert Kelly’s grave, turned directly to his father and said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” Kelly (who declined to comment for this story) initially believed, people close to him said, that Trump was making a ham-handed reference to the selflessness of America’s all-volunteer force. But later he came to realize that Trump simply does not understand non-transactional life choices.

Jeffrey Goldberg:
Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/

[underpants]

13. What kind of rube doesn't know to just keep their mouth shut at a gravesite?

I guess some asshole who thinks everyone is just WAITING to hear from them.

[brewens]

7. Not many suckers in that war though it was a bad deal. Most were drafted. It was really an

unpopular war. They put a whole lot of lipstick on that pig after it was done.

[Docreed2003]

8. K&R for exposure

Fuck you Mr Trump

Signed,
OEF Vet

[CaptYossarian]

9. Is the quote from 1967?

At least Trump admitted "his helicopter couldn't fly". (There's a little blue pill for that.)

[coti]

10. Almost nothing shocks me anymore with this asshole, but this is SO over the line.

Unbelievable he could show this level of disrespect and contempt for the sacrifice of others.

[kskiska]

11. Strange to say

but Trump's child support agreement with Marla regarding Tiffany stated that payments would cease if Tiffany should join the Peace Corps or enter military service.

[appalachiablue]

12. Can't believe this of a US president; maybe it's a nightmare

Belleau Wood is a consequential battle in American history, and the ground on which it was fought is venerated by the Marine Corps. America and its allies stopped the German advance toward Paris there in the spring of 1918.

> But Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?” He also said that he didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies.

My grandfather who was a WWI Vet would be rolling in his grave, with other wa veteran relatives..

[underpants]

14. Wow Mr great businessman huh? He doesn't understand the massive amount of money made off wars?

Aside from the unpatriotic and dickishness, even in his transactional relationship world he doesn’t understand how much can be made even in just transporting and HOUSING troops?

[Blue Owl]

15. What a piece of fucking shit

Fuck you tRump...

[liberalmuse]

16. My dad and uncle were Marines.

Holy fuck I'm livid right now. This POS. I can't be civil or use decent language right now, so will have to stop here. Let's just say if words could kill Trump would be dead a million times over in the most excruciating ways possible. And what he said about disabled war vets. This is beyond. It's probably one of the most vile things I've ever heard anyone say. These people are ghouls.

[Politicalgolfer]

18. This post has got to go viral...it has to get to Biden camp!!!

[Johnny2X2X]

19. Being confirmed several times over.

Trump said this.

Link to tweet

?s=21

[yellowcanine]

20. But yet he thinks General Lee, who destroyed Longstreet''s army at Gettysburg by ordering Pickett's

charge, is a hero and a great general. All the while fighting against the United States, the very definition of treason.

[Klaralven]

21. The 2,289 buried at The Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial are American heros

The 8,630 buried at Cimetière militaire allemand de Belleau are losers and suckers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisne-Marne_American_Cemetery_and_Memorial

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimeti%C3%A8re_militaire_allemand_de_Belleau

[superpatriotman]

22. Ick

And kick

[BlueWavePsych]

23. Drumpf disrespects our forces.

[dalton99a]

24. "Anyone who does anything when there's no direct personal gain to be had is a sucker"

Trump’s understanding of heroism has not evolved since he became president. According to sources with knowledge of the president’s views, he seems to genuinely not understand why Americans treat former prisoners of war with respect. Nor does he understand why pilots who are shot down in combat are honored by the military. On at least two occasions since becoming president, according to three sources with direct knowledge of his views, Trump referred to former President George H. W. Bush as a “loser” for being shot down by the Japanese as a Navy pilot in World War II. (Bush escaped capture, but eight other men shot down during the same mission were caught, tortured, and executed by Japanese soldiers.)

When lashing out at critics, Trump often reaches for illogical and corrosive insults, and members of the Bush family have publicly opposed him. But his cynicism about service and heroism extends even to the World War I dead buried outside Paris—people who were killed more than a quarter century before he was born. Trump finds the notion of military service difficult to understand, and the idea of volunteering to serve especially incomprehensible. (The president did not serve in the military; he received a medical deferment from the draft during the Vietnam War because of the alleged presence of bone spurs in his feet. In the 1990s, Trump said his efforts to avoid contracting sexually transmitted diseases constituted his “personal Vietnam.”)

On Memorial Day 2017, Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery, a short drive from the White House. He was accompanied on this visit by John Kelly, who was then the secretary of homeland security, and who would, a short time later, be named the White House chief of staff. The two men were set to visit Section 60, the 14-acre area of the cemetery that is the burial ground for those killed in America’s most recent wars. Kelly’s son Robert is buried in Section 60. A first lieutenant in the Marine Corps, Robert Kelly was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan. He was 29. Trump was meant, on this visit, to join John Kelly in paying respects at his son’s grave, and to comfort the families of other fallen service members. But according to sources with knowledge of this visit, Trump, while standing by Robert Kelly’s grave, turned directly to his father and said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” Kelly (who declined to comment for this story) initially believed, people close to him said, that Trump was making a ham-handed reference to the selflessness of America’s all-volunteer force. But later he came to realize that Trump simply does not understand non-transactional life choices.

“He can’t fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself,” one of Kelly’s friends, a retired four-star general, told me. “He just thinks that anyone who does anything when there’s no direct personal gain to be had is a sucker. There’s no money in serving the nation.” Kelly’s friend went on to say, “Trump can’t imagine anyone else’s pain. That’s why he would say this to the father of a fallen marine on Memorial Day in the cemetery where he’s buried.”

[greenjar_01]

25. When Trump says "Who were the good guys in that war (WWI)?" you can hear Fred Trump

He heard that often at his father's knee, no doubt. That's the part that reveals the whole thing as true for me. You can hear Trump echoing his father's ethnic German chauvinism. There's always been the sensibility of the Dolchstosslegende about Trump - it bubbles to the surface from time to time, as here. He remembers his father's lessons - don't get it twisted. And if maybe Germany should have won World War I, maybe the other guy who said that was right too, you see...