- President Donald Trump did not attend Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington’s dignified transfer Monday night as military leaders and Vice President JD Vance gathered to honor the 26-year-old.
- Pennington is the seventh U.S. service member to have died as a result of the war with Iran. He was injured in a March 1 attack at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
- Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, as well as top military officials, attended his dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base.
- Trump, having previously faced significant criticism for wearing a “USA” baseball hat to the dignified transfer of six other U.S. service members killed in the conflict, was out of town. He was traveling to D.C. at the time after spending the day at his golf club in Doral with members of Congress at the House Republicans’ annual policy retreat.
- Internet users slammed Trump for “disrespecting” the slain soldiers at the earlier dignified transfer, with one person writing, “Trump wouldn’t take his hat off during the dignified transfer of the six service members we lost in Kuwait. But tell me more about how much he ‘loves our troops.’”
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