Trump Campaign Staff had Altercation with Official at Arlington National Cemetery

[Tropical Wilds]

All I'm going to say is that if I died while serving in Afghanistan only to have my grave used for a terrible photo op with a smiling felon who apparently thinks that he's a combination of God and the Fonz, I'd haunt everyone on his team good.

My grandparents are buried there. You’ll have to beat them to it. They fled Germany during WWII and I can’t imagine a human who would be more infuriated to be associated with Trump than him.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

US Army rebukes Trump campaign for incident at Arlington National Cemetery​

The US Army issued a stark rebuke of former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign over the incident on Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, saying in a statement on Thursday that participants in the ceremony “were made aware of federal laws” regarding political activity at the cemetery, and “abruptly pushed aside” an employee of the cemetery.

“Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside,” the Army spokesperson said in the statement on Thursday. Section 60 is an area in the cemetery largely reserved for the graves of those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked. ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve,” the statement said.

I wish there was a way to communicate to everybody the depth of how completely monumental, completely jaw droppingly, borderline unprecedented it is that the Army released a statement about this. There is absolutely no way to put it into words how whatever happened was of such a gravitas that the Army would issue a statement that so directly implies the fault was with a former sitting president and somebody in the running to be the next president. It’s unheard of. However monumental you think it is, multiply it by 1,000.

The Army. Just slapped down. The former and potential next. Commander. In. Chief.

It’s mind boggling how significant that is.

 

[Vambram]

I wish there was a way to communicate to everybody the depth of how completely monumental, completely jaw droppingly, borderline unprecedented it is that the Army released a statement about this. There is absolutely no way to put it into words how whatever happened was of such a gravitas that the Army would issue a statement that so directly implies the fault was with a former sitting president and somebody in the running to be the next president. It’s unheard of. However monumental you think it is, multiply it by 1,000.

The Army. Just slapped down. The former and potential next. Commander. In. Chief.

It’s mind boggling how significant that is.

To be fair, Donald Trump himself is not and was not in this controversy. Instead, it was a few members of the campaign team.

 

[JosephZ]

To be fair, Donald Trump himself is not and was not in this controversy. Instead, it was a few members of the campaign team.

He was there. He knew the rules, he broke the rules. He also posted his illegally made campaign commercial on his social media account.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

To be fair, Donald Trump himself is not and was not in this controversy. Instead, it was a few members of the campaign team.

He wasn’t in the sense that he wasn’t the instigator, but he was the cause and it was his people and his campaign.

 

[Vambram]

The families who were actually there with Donald Trump appreciated him and the event. That is the most important part about this topic..... not what unnamed Army bureaucratic officials think about it, in my opinion.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

The families who were actually there with Donald Trump appreciated him and the event. That is the most important part about this topic..... not what unnamed Army bureaucratic officials think about it, in my opinion.

No, it’s not. Arlington is sacred ground, a place devoted to veterans and dignitaries. There is a code of conduct and respect that are followed and strictly enforced. He didn’t do it, showing again just how little he cares for the people in the military.

Just because a family appreciates it doesn’t mean anything.

If you’ve been to Arlington, you’d know this.

 

[Vambram]

As a Soldier who is still serving in the military after over 26 years of service, I know for a FACT that Donald Trump has far more respect for military Servicemembers than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ever has demonstrated anywhere.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

As a Soldier who is still serving in the military after over 26 years of service, I know for a FACT that Donald Trump has far more respect for military Servicemembers than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ever has demonstrated anywhere.

He said, citing nothing, offering no proof, all while not tagging the poster he was speaking to in the hopes it would slide by without being called out…

Girl, bye. LoL

 

[Vambram]

He said, citing nothing, offering no proof, all while not tagging the poster he was speaking to in the hopes it would slide by without being called out…

Girl, bye. LoL

You can attempt to try to be dismissive of me, if you want to do so. That is not an unexpected reply from someone who has appeared to believe much of what the liberal mainstream media has lied about Trump since 2016.

Donald Trump's policies defeated ISIS, whereas Obama called ISIS a jv team while allowing them to take over much of Syria and Iraq. Donald Trump's policies increased defense spending while also including pay raises for the troops which were higher than the rate of inflation. Meanwhile, Joe Biden's weakness in 2021 resulted in the infamous disastrous retreat out of Afghanistan. That weakness told world dictators everything they needed to know about Biden's incompetence. There's no doubt, that an objective opinion, shows that the USA military was stronger and better prepared during Trump's first term when compared to the state and conditions of our military today.

 

[JosephZ]

Donald Trump's policies defeated ISIS

ISIS has been the world's deadliest terrorist group for the 9th consecutive year as of 2023, so saying that Trump's policies defeated ISIS would be incorrect.

Obama called ISIS a jv team while allowing them to take over much of Syria and Iraq.

Pretty much everyone underestimated ISIS capabilities in the beginning.

In a television interview in January 2014, a few days after ISIS seized control of Fallujah, President Obama dismissed ISIS as being “the JV team.” Administration officials admitted that they did not focus sufficiently on ISIS’s territorial ambitions, instead viewing its activities as a response to the Iraqi government’s hostile policy toward Sunnis. Some were concerned primarily by the possibility that jihadists making their way back to Europe would then form terrorist cells on the continent, but were not worried about their efforts to control territories seized in Syria and Iraq. In hindsight, it is clear that both the intelligence community and the decision makers did not fully understand the implications of the crisis in Syria and Iraq for ISIS’s growth and methods of operation. They failed to realize that the vast vacuum created in both countries could not stay empty for long and that the central governments’ inability to govern large tracts of land was an open invitation to an organization such as ISIS to fill the vacuum, construct its force, and grow in strength, in order to seize control of the lawless regions.

The administration, security establishment, and intelligence community were all surprised by the rapid collapse of the Iraqi army. The army alone, not counting the police, was ten times the size of ISIS, and was constructed and trained by the United States over several years. Because most of its troops were Shiite, the expectation was that they would demonstrate both the will to fight and a reasonable level of resolve in battling a Sunni organization. This did not happen, and it was not understood that ethnic division in the Iraqi government, establishment, and security forces would impinge on the resolve of the army to defend the country. Its collapse within 48 hours and its inability to defend a large central city like Mosul were not foreseen, which raised questions about the possibility of ever reconstructing this force.

https://www.inss.org.il/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/systemfiles/adkan18_3ENG (4)_Kam.pdf (PDF)

Donald Trump's policies increased defense spending while also including pay raises for the troops which were higher than the rate of inflation.

The president doesn't decide how much military pay increases.

How are annual pay raises determined?​

A: ECI is the Employment Cost Index, which is a measure of the increase in private-sector wages and salaries. It is calculated by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics and updated every three months. The ECI, reported each October, is used to determine the pay raise for the next fiscal year. The raise was set at ECI + 1/2% for 2000 through 2006. The FY2004 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) established that the military pay raise will be equal to ECI after 2006. Of course, Congress can enact raises that exceed these percentages as they did for 2008 and 2009.

Congress gives the final approval, and then the president signs it into law.

There have been military pay increases under both presidents that have exceeded the rate of inflation.

Pay increase left column below.
Inflation rate right column below.

President Trump

2018 - 2.4% 1.9%
2019 - 2.6% 2.3%
2020 - 3.1% 1.4%
2021 - 3.0% 7.0%

President Biden

2022 - 2.7% 6.5%
2023 - 4.6% 3.4%
2024 - 5.2% Current YOY rate of inflation 2.9%
2025 - 4.5%

Joe Biden's weakness in 2021 resulted in the infamous disastrous retreat out of Afghanistan.

“I started the process, All the troops are coming back home. They [the Biden administration] couldn’t stop the process. 21 years is enough. Don’t we think? 21 years. They couldn’t stop the process. They wanted to, but it was very tough to stop the process when other things… It’s a shame. 21 years, by a government that wouldn’t last. The only way they last is if we’re there. What are we going to say? We’ll stay for another 21 years, then we’ll stay for another 50. The whole thing is ridiculous. … We’re bringing troops back home from Afghanistan.” -- Donald Trump June 26, 2021

President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, were both eager to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan and end what Biden referred to in his Aug. 16 speech as “America’s longest war.”

The Trump administration in February 2020 negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government, freed 5,000 imprisoned Taliban soldiers and set a date certain of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal.

And the Trump administration kept to the pact, reducing U.S. troop levels from about 13,000 to 2,500, even though the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership.

Biden delayed the May 1 withdrawal date that he inherited. But ultimately his administration pushed ahead with a plan to withdraw by Aug. 31, despite obvious signs that the Taliban wasn’t complying with the agreement and had a stated goal to create an “Islamic government” in Afghanistan after the U.S. left, even if it meant it had to “continue our war to achieve our goal.”

https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/timeline-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/

 

[iluvatar5150]

He wasn’t in the sense that he wasn’t the instigator, but he was the cause and it was his people and his campaign.

Even if we charitably absolve Trump of anything regarding the incident, he still hasn’t, as far as I’m aware, apologized for it or smacked down any of the several people on his campaign, including Vance, who’ve made jerky comments about it.

 

[Vambram]

ISIS has also been the world's deadliest terrorist group for the 9th consecutive year as of 2023, so saying that Trump's policies defeated ISIS would be incorrect.


Pretty much everyone underestimated ISIS capabilities in the beginning.

In a television interview in January 2014, a few days after ISIS seized control of Fallujah, President Obama dismissed ISIS as being “the JV team.” Administration officials admitted that they did not focus sufficiently on ISIS’s territorial ambitions, instead viewing its activities as a response to the Iraqi government’s hostile policy toward Sunnis. Some were concerned primarily by the possibility that jihadists making their way back to Europe would then form terrorist cells on the continent, but were not worried about their efforts to control territories seized in Syria and Iraq. In hindsight, it is clear that both the intelligence community and the decision makers did not fully understand the implications of the crisis in Syria and Iraq for ISIS’s growth and methods of operation. They failed to realize that the vast vacuum created in both countries could not stay empty for long and that the central governments’ inability to govern large tracts of land was an open invitation to an organization such as ISIS to fill the vacuum, construct its force, and grow in strength, in order to seize control of the lawless regions.

The administration, security establishment, and intelligence community were all surprised by the rapid collapse of the Iraqi army. The army alone, not counting the police, was ten times the size of ISIS, and was constructed and trained by the United States over several years. Because most of its troops were Shiite, the expectation was that they would demonstrate both the will to fight and a reasonable level of resolve in battling a Sunni organization. This did not happen, and it was not understood that ethnic division in the Iraqi government, establishment, and security forces would impinge on the resolve of the army to defend the country. Its collapse within 48 hours and its inability to defend a large central city like Mosul were not foreseen, which raised questions about the possibility of ever reconstructing this force.

https://www.inss.org.il/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/systemfiles/adkan18_3ENG (4)_Kam.pdf (PDF)


The president doesn't decide how much military pay increases.

How are annual pay raises determined?​

A: ECI is the Employment Cost Index, which is a measure of the increase in private-sector wages and salaries. It is calculated by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics and updated every three months. The ECI, reported each October, is used to determine the pay raise for the next fiscal year. The raise was set at ECI + 1/2% for 2000 through 2006. The FY2004 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) established that the military pay raise will be equal to ECI after 2006. Of course, Congress can enact raises that exceed these percentages as they did for 2008 and 2009.

Congress gives the final approval, and then the president signs it into law.

There have been military pay increases under both presidents that have exceeded the rate of inflation.

Pay inc. Left column
Inf. right column

President Trump

2018 - 2.4% 1.9%
2019 - 2.6% 2.3%
2020 - 3.1% 1.4%
2021 - 3.0% 7.0%

President Biden

2022 - 2.7% 6.5%
2023 - 4.6% 3.4%
2024 - 5.2% Current YOY rate of inflation 2.9%
2025 - 4.5%


“I started the process, All the troops are coming back home. They [the Biden administration] couldn’t stop the process. 21 years is enough. Don’t we think? 21 years. They couldn’t stop the process. They wanted to, but it was very tough to stop the process when other things… It’s a shame. 21 years, by a government that wouldn’t last. The only way they last is if we’re there. What are we going to say? We’ll stay for another 21 years, then we’ll stay for another 50. The whole thing is ridiculous. … We’re bringing troops back home from Afghanistan.” -- Donald Trump June 26, 2021

President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, were both eager to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan and end what Biden referred to in his Aug. 16 speech as “America’s longest war.”

The Trump administration in February 2020 negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government, freed 5,000 imprisoned Taliban soldiers and set a date certain of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal.

And the Trump administration kept to the pact, reducing U.S. troop levels from about 13,000 to 2,500, even though the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership.

Biden delayed the May 1 withdrawal date that he inherited. But ultimately his administration pushed ahead with a plan to withdraw by Aug. 31, despite obvious signs that the Taliban wasn’t complying with the agreement and had a stated goal to create an “Islamic government” in Afghanistan after the U.S. left, even if it meant it had to “continue our war to achieve our goal.”

https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/timeline-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/

None of that changes the facts about Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal of our military from Afghanistan which caused our enemies to see the weakness of Joe Biden. Joe Biden gave up the Baghram Air Base which was built by American tax dollars. Joe Biden left multiple billions of dollars of American military equipment for the Taliban.

 

[JosephZ]

None of that changes the facts about Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal of our military from Afghanistan which caused our enemies to see the weakness of Joe Biden.

It had to be done at some point, and there was no way to avoid what happened. It was a single terrorist in a crowd of people that set off a bomb that killed 13 of our soldiers. If we had stayed in Afghanistan, far more than 13 lives would have been lost. In the final 18 months of Trump's presidency, 22 lives where lost in Afghanistan. He never mentions their sacrifice or the 40+ other US soldiers that died in Afghanistan during his presidency. Trump didn't go to Arlington last year, or the year before. The only reason he went there this time is because there's an election coming up. He doesn't care about the military, our fallen soldiers, or their families; he only cares about himself.

Joe Biden gave up the Baghram Air Base which was built by American tax dollars.

This has happened many times in different parts of the world following conflicts. US bases are often left behind or turned over to the countries they are built in.

Joe Biden left multiple billions of dollars of American military equipment for the Taliban.

Whatever equipment the Taliban got was either given to or sold to the Afghan government in advance; it no longer belonged to the United States. Most of the equipment, like missiles, advanced weaponry, and surveillance systems, was either removed from the country or destroyed long before our troops withdrew. Unfortunately, the Afghanistan government quickly fell to the Taliban, and the Taliban took control of whatever equipment they had.

 

[Pommer]

To be fair, Donald Trump himself is not and was not in this controversy. Instead, it was a few members of the campaign team.

“Over-zealous subordinates” is sooo 1986, though.

 

[wing2000]

The families who were actually there with Donald Trump appreciated him and the event. That is the most important part about this topic..... not what unnamed Army bureaucratic officials think about it, in my opinion.

...an the families of the nearby graves?

Where was their consent to having their son's name included in Trump's Tik Tok photo?

 

[wing2000]

None of that changes the facts about Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal of our military from Afghanistan which caused our enemies to see the weakness of Joe Biden. Joe Biden gave up the Baghram Air Base which was built by American tax dollars. Joe Biden left multiple billions of dollars of American military equipment for the Taliban.

Completely off topic.

 

[FenderTL5]

Even if we charitably absolve Trump of anything regarding the incident, he still hasn’t, as far as I’m aware, apologized for it or smacked down any of the several people on his campaign, including Vance, who’ve made jerky comments about it.

Why would he apologize? He went there for a photo op, flaunting the rules. He got his photo and a little additional publicity/free air-time that his toadies will defend to the nth degree. He knows there are no ramifications. He does what he wants, when he wants, because he can.

 

[JosephZ]

As a Soldier who is still serving in the military after over 26 years of service, I know for a FACT that Donald Trump has far more respect for military Servicemembers than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ever has demonstrated anywhere.

As a soldier, does it bother you that Trump has on several occasions insulted war heroes, prisoners of war, and Gold Star families? Does it bother you that he said the civilian Medal of Freedom is "much better" than the Medal of Honor and most recently used the graves of our soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country as a campaign prop?

 

[Belk]

As a Soldier who is still serving in the military after over 26 years of service, I know for a FACT that Donald Trump has far more respect for military Servicemembers than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ever has demonstrated anywhere.

Labeling your opinion as fact does not lend it any more credibility.