It Rings True

As a veteran who served six years on active duty in the United States Army, under two Commanders in Chief, I was filled with outrage, disgust, and embarrassment, reading Jeffery Goldberg’s article in The Atlantic, “Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’”.

Every citizen, every man and woman who served in the U.S. Military, everyone who has/had a relative or loved one serve in the U.S. Military, everyone who knows a Veteran or active duty member of the U.S. Military, ought to be outraged that a sitting president, that the nation’s Commander in Chief would utter those words.

Of course, every citizen SHOULD BE outraged but I am fully aware that a cadre of sycophants have already begun their assault on Goldberg and his report. Whether or not every word in the piece is one-hundred percent accurate is for someone else to debate but for me the foundation of Goldberg’s reporting is solid and rings true.

Trump has a long, disgusting history of attacking the character, service and courage of members of the military; from Sergeants to Captains to Admirals to Four-Star Generals, in all branches of the Armed Forces of the United States of America. Here is just a partial list of Trump’s attacks on U.S. service members:

● In July 2015, then-presidential candidate Trump said Senator John McCain, who retired from the Navy as a captain, awarded a Silver Star and a Distinguished Flying Cross, was only a war hero because he had been taken hostage. McCain spent five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.” Trump spoke those cowardly words during a live interview.

Trump also said that he didn’t like McCain after his loss to President Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. “I never liked him after that, because I don’t like losers.”

‘Trump remained fixated on McCain, one of the few prominent Republicans to continue criticizing him after he won the nomination. When McCain died, in August 2018, Trump told his senior staff, according to three sources with direct knowledge of this event, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser,” the president told aides. Trump was not invited to McCain’s funeral.’ Jeffery Goldberg, September 3, 2020. (More below from the Goldberg piece in The Atlantic).

● In July 2016, Trump took aim at retired four-star General John Allen. “You know who he is? He’s a failed general. He was the general fighting ISIS. I would say he hasn’t done so well, right?” Trump said, according to reports.

● In July 2016, Trump attacked the family of Captain Humayun Khan, a slain soldier, dismissing a speech his father Khizr Khan made, because he said Khan’s mother hadn’t been allowed to speak. Trump was referring to Islam tradition of female subservience, but the family said she had not spoken because she was too emotional to talk about her son’s death.

The elder Khan also said Trump had never sacrificed anything or lost anyone, to which Trump responded, “I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I’ve worked very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs.”

● In October 2017, Trump forgot the name of slain US army Sgt. La David Johnson, while he was on the phone with his widow. Johnson was killed in an ambush in Niger while in active service.

Myeshia Johnson said the call with Trump made her cry, and that Trump told her that her husband “knew what he had signed up for.”

● In April 2018, Trump called James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, “a lying machine.” Trump was referring to Clapper’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2013, when he said the NSA did not wittingly collect data on Americans.

Clapper is a retired Air Force Lieutenant General, who served twice in Southeast Asia.

● In June 2018, Trump called Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania “Lamb the Sham,” when he endorsed Lamb’s opponent. Lamb is a Marine Corps veteran. He served four years and reached rank of Captain.

Trump again attacked Lamb on Memorial Day 2020!

● In November 2018, Fox News’ Chris Wallace asked Trump about his thoughts on retired Admiral William McRaven, a former Navy Seal who was behind the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden. He interrupted Wallace and said, “Hilary Clinton Fan.” When Wallace continued, Trump did, too. “Excuse me: Hilary. Clinton. Fan.”

● In January 2019, Trump said retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal, who led US forces in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2010, was fired by former President Barack Obama “like a dog.” He also said his final assignment was a total bust, that he was a Hilary Clinton lover, and he was known for his “big dumb mouth.”

● In May 2019, several days after the former special counsel Robert Mueller released his investigative report on Russian election interference and Trump’s attempts to obstruct justice, Trump tweeted the report had been constructed by “Trump Haters,” and called Mueller “highly conflicted.”

Mueller fought in the Vietnam War, and was awarded multiple awards, including a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

● In August 2019, Trump told Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton, who served as a marine in Iraq, “You remain a frickin’ coward” when Moulton dropped out of the race to be the next Democrat presidential candidate.

Moulton was awarded a Bronze Star and a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medal. He was cited for his fearlessness for when he drew fire to himself to help four of his marines who were wounded.

● In October 2019, Trump called his former Defense Secretary James Mattis, a retired four-star general, “the world’s most overrated general,” after also saying Mattis wasn’t tough enough.

Mattis is a veteran of the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

As a Lieutenant Colonel, Mattis was awarded a Bronze Star for valour, and when promoted to full Colonel he received one of the Marine Corps’s highest, if lesser known, honours – Edson’s Eagles, the rank insignia first worn by the legendary Marine Raider commander Merritt “Red Mike” Edson (WWI & WWII), which is bestowed upon the Colonel who best exemplifies Edson’s fighting spirit.

● In October 2019, John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, told a live audience that he’d told Trump not to hire a “yes man,” because if he did, he would get impeached. When Trump heard about it, he said, “John Kelly never said that, he never said anything like that. If he would have said that I would have thrown him out of the office. He just wants to come back into the action like everybody else does.”

Kelly is a retired Marine general who fought in the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War, and spent more than 45 years in the service.

“I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” he asked on Memorial Day 2017, standing [with Kelly] beside the grave of Kelly’s son, who was killed in Afghanistan at age 29, according to the Goldberg piece in The Atlantic.

● In October 2019, Trump called Bill Taylor, the US’s chief envoy to Ukraine, who was a witness in Trump’s impeachment inquiry, and who had given evidence against him, a “Never Trumper.” He went on to say, “Never Trumpers” were “human scum.”

Taylor served as an Army infantry officer for six years, and completed two tours in Vietnam.

● In October 2019, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who served in Iraq, where he was wounded by an IED and received a Purple Heart, was attacked by Trump. After Vindman’s opening statement was released to the media, but before he’d given evidence at the impeachment inquiry, Trump called him a “Never Trumper.”

Vindman was on Trump’s National Security Council and was on the call when Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s business dealings.

THERE IS MORE, MUCH MORE…

After Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani in early January 2020, Iranian officials authorized a January 8 retaliatory missile attack against Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq, which is known to house U.S. troops. Eight U.S. soldiers suffered concussion-like symptoms during the attack and three others sought behavioral health treatment, according to the Pentagon.

Trump said he did not consider their injuries “serious”

“I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things. But I would say, and I can report, it is not very serious.”

AND MORE…

S.V. Dáte at Huffington Post reported that Trump had refused for two years to go to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to receive the bodies of U.S. soldiers – despite his insistence that he’s paid his respects to “many, many” U.S. soldiers killed in the line of duty.

A former White House aide told Dáte that Trump had stopped going to the base after Bill Owens, the father of a slain Navy SEAL, refused to shake the president’s hand at a 2017 meeting and lambasted Trump for his incompetence.

“He refused to go back for two years, he was so rattled,” the aide said of the president.

AND MORE…

President Donald Trump traveled thousands of miles to Paris on Friday, November 9, 2018 to participate in a number of events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

But a bit of rain on Saturday kept him from one of the most solemn gatherings. Trump skipped a planned visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, a World War I cemetery in Belleau, France, with a White House statement citing “scheduling and logistical difficulties caused by the weather” for the decision.

The cemetery is the final resting place of many of the 1,800 American soldiers killed in the battle of Belleau Wood. (A total of 2,289 are buried at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery).

In his place, Trump sent a delegation led by White House chief of staff John Kelly, who traveled in a small motorcade to the cemetery that is about an hour’s drive from Paris.

Trump blamed rain for the cancellation at the time.

But, according to Goldberg, Trump had actually “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.”

Goldberg added:

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.

Read: The Battle of Belleau Wood was brutal, deadly and forgotten. But it forged a new Marine Corps.

The Report

Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’

Jeffrey Goldberg September 3, 2020

EARLY RESPONSE TO THE GOLDBERG REPORT:

Both Elizabeth Neumann, a former assistant secretary of counter-terrorism in the Department of Homeland Security, and Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff in that department, said the account was true, asserting that Trump’s low opinion of soldiers killed and wounded in combat was well-known inside the administration.

A senior Defense Department official I just spoke with confirmed this story by JeffreyGoldberg in its entirety. Especially the grafs about the late Sen. John McCain and former Marine Gen. John Kelly, President @realDonaldTrump former chief of staff. — James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) September 3, 2020

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a former Army Ranger who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the reports of Trump’s disparaging comments were “the last full measure of his disgrace,”

Allison Gill, a podcast host and former Veterans Affairs official: “My dad died at 46 from exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Trump says he’s a loser. My grandpa went down in the South Pacific in WWII. Trump just called him a sucker”. “I’m a disabled vet, but not an amputee so trump says I can be in a parade. The choice is clear.”

Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Purple Heart recipient who lost both her legs during a combat mission in Iraq, accused Trump of attempting to “politicize and pervert our military to stroke his own ego”.

VoteVets Statement on President Trump’s Referring to Military Personnel Killed in Action as “Losers” and “Suckers”

Will Goodwin, Army Veteran and Director of Government Relations for VoteVets, released the following statement in the wake of Jeffrey Goldberg’s article in The Atlantic which accused President Trump of referring to U.S. military personnel killed in action as “losers” and “suckers”:

“This is not surprising, nor is it the first time President Trump has attacked veterans, but it is a new low, even for Trump. There is no rhyme or reason for Trump to cruelly attack our nation’s fallen heroes. And it is especially egregious given that he’s the Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces.

“Donald Trump does not respect our men and women in uniform. He does not respect their families. He does not respect veterans. And worse, he has matched his vile language with action. He has abused our military, has made our country less safe, and has put our men and women in uniform in harm’s way for his own political gain.

“Joe Biden has spent his entire career fighting for our troops, veterans, and their families. Joe and Jill Biden watched a son deploy to war. Soon, with the votes of millions of veterans and active duty service members, we will again have a President and Commander in Chief worthy of the title — Joe Biden.”

Joe Biden, whose late son Beau was an Iraq War veteran, responded:

“If the revelations in today’s Atlantic article are true, then they are yet another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the president of the United States.”

“I have long said that, as a nation, we have many obligations, but we only have one truly sacred obligation—to prepare and equip those we send into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families, both while they are deployed and after they return home.”

And let us not forget that Donald Trump, the son of a wealthy New York real estate developer, got five deferments during the Vietnam War:

Trump received deferments (in 1964, 1965, 1966, and 1968) to stay out of the Vietnam War. Not, as Trump once claimed, because he had high lottery numbers.

According to his Selective Service records, Trump received four student deferments between 1964 and 1968 while in college and an additional medical deferment after graduating.

Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1968. The lottery occurred in December 1969, conflicting with Trump’s ‘recollection’.

Lottery numbers ranged from 1 to 365 and were allotted according to birth dates. Trump’s number was a very high, 356. Trump received his first two student deferments while enrolled at Fordham University in New York City in June 1964 and December 1965.

He transferred to Wharton as a sophomore that year and received another two 2-S deferments in December 1966 and January 1968 during his last year of college.

He was classified “available for service” (class 1-A) in November 1966 but just three weeks later in December 1966 he was given a new student deferment.

Upon graduation, Trump was no longer eligible for student deferments.

In October 1968, he was declared medically unfit (because of, magically, ‘bone spurs’ in a heel) to serve except “in time of national emergency,” even though he had been declared fit to serve in 1966.

In 1972, Trump was ultimately declared ineligible for service and given a final 4-F deferment.

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