On this hallowed holiday, as we honor those who’ve died for their country, we need to remember that one of the guys aspiring (yet again) to be commander-in-chief has never quite understood the concepts of service and sacrifice. Here are seven random moments that will live in infamy:
Scene one. On Memorial Day in 2017, then-president Trump stood among the graves in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery and said to Gen. John Kelly, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
Scene two: In 2018, Trump was scheduled to visit to an American military cemetery near Paris, but he changed his mind because, as The Atlantic later reported, “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.” Indeed, in a conversation that day with senior staff members , he said: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
Scene three: During the 2016 campaign, a military veteran gave Trump a copy of his own Purple Heart, and this was Trump’s reaction: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.”
Scene four: Much easier indeed. Trump got five deferments (including a fake claim of bone spurs) to keep him out of Vietnam. Way back in 1993, he told Howard Stern that dodging sexually transmitted diseases was just like going to war: “Dating is like being in Vietnam. You’re the equivalent of a soldier going over to Vietnam…It was my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier.”
Scene five: In 2016, those deferments threatened to become a campaign issue. Trump tasked Michael Cohen to “handle” it. Three years later, during a congressional hearing, Cohen testified under oath: “Mr. Trump tasked me to handle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from the Vietnam draft. Mr. Trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records, he gave me none and said that there was no surgery. He told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment. He finished the conversation with the following comment. ‘You think I’m stupid, I’m not going to Vietnam.'”
Scene six. In 2016 he assailed John McCain, who’d been tortured in a Hanoi prison: “He’s not a war hero. He was a ‘war hero’ because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” When McCain died in 2018 and flags were flown at half staff, Trump raged to his aides, “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser.”
Scene seven. During a 2018 overseas trip, Trump was briefed about a key World War I battle, at a place called Belleau Wood. It’s venerated by the U.S. Marines, who stopped the 1918 German advance toward Paris – at a cost of more than 1,800 dead Marines. Trump’s question to his aides: “Who were the good guys in this war?” Ignorance aside, Trump later referred to the dead Marines as “suckers.”
Bonus scene. Today, the criminal defendant has posted this message: “Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum…” That triggered a long harangue about his legal woes (the “Human Scum” are his accusers), with nary a single word about the soldiers who’ve sacrificed their lives.
To which I say: It’s not about you, moron.
Are there enough suckers and losers in this country to elect this guy again? Stay tuned.