When I learned the other day that Donald Trump has used words like “losers” and “suckers” to describe soldiers who’ve paid the ultimate sacrifice for America, I conjured from memory a minor episode during the 2016 campaign. A military vet gave Trump a copy of his own Purple Heart, and this was Trump’s reaction: “Man, that’s like big stuff. I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.”

And there it was, the Trump ethos in action. Or should I say inaction. he coveted that symbol of courage and sacrifice, but he never would’ve considered putting himself at risk to win it. As that largely forgotten ’16 episode makes clear – and as The Atlantic reported in detail – Trump can’t begin to fathom the concept of sacrifice and patriotic service. Heck, as far back as 1993, Trump (who got five deferments to keep him out of Vietnam) 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.”

So it’s a mystery to me why The Atlantic’s reporting has caused such a stink. The malignant narcissist has long paraded his detestable ‘tude – he was recently outed for telling military generals that they’re “all losers…dopes and babies” – and, as Washington Post columnist David Ignatius (who has excellent military sources) points out, “it has been an open secret in Washington that many prominent retired four-stars have regarded Trump with growing horror as he assaulted the traditions of discipline and professionalism that are bedrocks of military life.”

Perhaps what’s different now is that an historic election is looming, and the incumbent’s imbecilic character is on the ballot. His laser-focus on himself clashes with the code of honor that animates one of America’s most respected institutions. Guy Snodgrass, an ex-Navy fighter pilot, writes, “The military prioritizes placing service before self, with leaders putting the well-being of those they lead before their own personal comfort.”

Personal comfort, like not getting your hair wet in the rain. Trump rejected a visit to an American cemetery near Paris, The Atlantic reports, “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.”

(It’s a weird family dynamic. Remember what Donald Trump Jr. wrote in his recent book, recalling a pre-Inaugural visit to Arlington National Cemetery? Seeing all those gravestones of dead vets prompted him to think “about all the sacrifices we’d have to make to help my father succeed – voluntarily giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals.”)

Fortunately, our active-duty troops already seem to have this fake commander-in-chief’s number. According to a new poll conducted by Military Times (partnering with Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families, only 38 percent of current military members view Trump favorably, and in a match-up with Joe Biden, he’s trailing by four points. For a Republican president, those are stunning stats that help explain why Trump’s retaliatory attack on The Atlantic – “dying” magazine, blah blah – has been so fierce. (Other news outlets, including Fox News, have now confirmed many of the details.)

Trump can’t fathom personal risk, but he certainly understand political risk, and the danger for him right now is that Losers and Suckers will reverberate within the sizeable military communities in states he can ill afford to lose – like North Carolina and Florida – and that it could alienate millions of households that have sent or are still sending sons and daughters to war. Perhaps all his previous displays of disrespect for the military – his frequent denunciations of our NATO allies, his withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany, his peremptory pardoning of war crimes defendants, his use of troops to help him stage a Bible photo-op, his ridiculing of John McCain for being captured – were the equivalent of dry kindling, with Losers and Suckers providing the spark.

And lest we forget, ignorance is also on the ballot in November. Consider this passage from The Atlantic piece:

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?”

It’s no surprise that he has no clue about World War I, given his recent claim that the flu epidemic is what ended World War II. A sucker for ignorance is the very definition of a loser.