“Sick and tragic”: Veterans and Democrats criticize Trump for “incident” at Arlington National Cemetery

Two members of Donald Trump's campaign team shoved and verbally abused an officer at Arlington Memorial Cemetery on Monday as the former president attended a wreath-laying ceremony, NPR first reported.

A source familiar with the incident told NPR that the officer was trying to prevent staff from filming and taking photographs in Section 60, a restricted area where recent U.S. military casualties are buried. According to the source, officials had already made it clear that only cemetery staff were allowed to film and take photographs in that area. When one of the officers tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering the area, staff cursed at the officer and pushed him aside.

Arlington National Cemetery said in a statement to NPR that it could “confirm that an incident occurred and a report was filed.”

“Federal law prohibits political campaigning or election-related activities at Army National Cemetery military cemeteries, including photographers, content creators, or others who are there for the purposes of or in direct support of a partisan political candidate's campaign,” the statement continued. “Arlington National Cemetery has underscored and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”

Trump was in Arlington to mark the third anniversary of a suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate of Kabul airport in 2021 during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The attack killed 13 U.S. soldiers. Trump used the attack as an opportunity to criticize President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the administration's handling of the evacuation.

On Tuesday, Trump released a statement from the families of two soldiers killed in the bombing. “We want to express our deepest gratitude and appreciation to President Donald J. Trump for his attendance at the recent Section 60 gathering to remember our children and their fallen brothers and sisters,” the Truth Social post said. “On the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing, the President and his team conducted themselves with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity toward all of our service members, especially our beloved children.”

The statement also said the family members had accepted the presence of an official videographer and photographer at the event, although their consent did not override the cemetery's existing rules governing behavior near the gravesites of many other veterans. In the end, Trump got his photo, which shows the former president with a big smile and a thumbs up behind the graves of the two Marines.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung denied the story of the altercation in a statement to NPR, saying, “We are prepared to release footage when such defamatory claims are made.” (No such footage had been released as of Wednesday morning.)

“The fact is that a private photographer was allowed access to the premises and for some reason an unnamed individual, who was obviously suffering from a mental disorder, decided to block access to members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony,” Cheung claimed.

Predictably, reports of a confrontation on sacred ground sparked outrage among veterans and veterans groups, with the liberal veterans organization VoteVets calling on Trump to take action against the staff involved in the incident. “If Donald Trump respects the fallen (which he doesn't), he will fire the people who fought with Arlington National Cemetery staff,” the group said in a statement on social media. “The fact is, Trump's staff did this because he wanted them to. He also sees Section 60 as a sucker punch and a loser,” the group said, referring to Trump's alleged past comments about veterans.

Former Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.), who fought in Afghanistan, called the photo and the alleged altercation that gave rise to it a “sick and tragic” affair. “Trump and his team only care about using the military as a prop,” he wrote on X. “No respect for our nation's fallen heroes. Trump only cares about himself.”

Rep. Mickie Sherrill, D-N.J., a former Navy lieutenant, said it was to be expected that Trump would use Arlington National Cemetery for a “photo opportunity” because “disrespect toward veterans is par for the course.”

Criticism of Trump's comments about veterans exploded in 2020 after several White House sources provided examples of Trump's derogatory comments about veterans for a report in The Atlantic magazine. According to one story, he refused to visit the graves of American World War I veterans at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France because “it's full of losers” who were “fools” who were killed. At a briefing by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford, Trump reportedly addressed his staff and said, “This guy is smart. Why did he join the military?”

Trump has denied these allegations, but some of his public statements are harder to refute: In 2015, he called former Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) “not a war hero” because he was shot down and captured by North Vietnamese forces.

It's not just words that have put Trump's record on veterans in the spotlight. During his tenure, Trump gave authority over Department of Veterans Affairs policy to a trio of businessmen who were members at his Mar-a-Lago club and had personal ties to him. That sparked a 2021 investigation by congressional Democrats, who found that the arrangement “violated the law and was designed to exert undue influence over government officials to advance their own personal interests.” ProPublica investigations also found that Trump's officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs enriched major corporations while imposing longer wait times for benefits on veterans, weakened the department through staff cuts, and retaliated against whistleblowers for reporting abuses and misconduct at VA facilities.

While Trump was sometimes reluctant to visit military cemeteries during his presidency, some commentators note that he now sees the political advantages of including these visits in his schedule.

“The idea that a candidate of any party would intentionally or inadvertently use this sacred ground as a prop for a political campaign is beyond reprehensible,” said journalist Mike Barnicle on MSNBC. “For the people who have their loved ones buried in Arlington National Cemetery, this is of course terribly upsetting.”