A new ad by a veterans group rakes former President Donald Trump for cynically using military graves as campaign props after a dust up at Arlington National Cemetery.
The scathing video by the progressive political action committee VoteVets lashes Trump's controversial visit last week to pose at a veteran's grave in what it characterizes as possibly the "greatest insult of all — turning a military cemetery visit into a political stunt with cameras in tow."
Trump’s on the run, panicked as his insults against those who serve catch up with him.
— VoteVets (@votevets) August 29, 2024
From mocking the wounded to turning military cemeteries into political stunts, he disrespects everything we stand for.
We’re making sure no Servicemember EVER has to salute him as Commander… pic.twitter.com/Z6Wuu20ghj
Trump later posted a campaign video featuring his visit, where he bizarrely posed by a grave with a dead veteran's family while smiling and giving a thumbs up.
Somber? You call smiling and doing a thumbs up over graves of fallen heroes at Arlington in violation of Arlington's rules SOMBER? No twisting of facts here! This photo speaks for itself. This IS Trump. He IS smiling and doing a thumbs up over the graves of fallen heroes. pic.twitter.com/3hA2lhbmiO
— Corporal of Marines, San Francisco, CA (@CanYouHelp15) August 30, 2024
Trump had just recently launched an attack on presidential campaign rival Kamala Harris over the Biden administration's chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan in which 13 service members were killed.
President Biden has blamed Trump in part for the fatal pullout for announcing the specific withdrawal schedule the previous year when he was in the White House, giving the Taliban plenty of time to prepare.
The U.S. Army said members of Trump's campaign staff pushed a cemetery worker during his visit who tried to stop them from taking video and photos in Section 60 where recent casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.
The taking of photographs or videos for any "partisan, political or fundraising purposes" is banned in the cemetery.
The woman has declined to press charges because of fears of harassment by Trump supporters, said military officials.
Harris on Saturday lashed Trump for disrespecting "sacred ground" for a political "stunt."
A Gold Star mother whose son is buried in the section of Arlington National Cemetery where Trump staged his photo op said it made her "sick."
"I've been distraught all week," Karen Meredith told Forbes during an interview. Her son First Lt. Kenneth Ballard was killed in Iraq in 2004 and is buried in Section 60.
"The fact that anybody thought that that was okay appalls me," said Meredith.
"That is such a solemn, hallowed ground that that was somebody's first instinct to push back on somebody who was doing their job. I'm just speechless. It just hurts my heart that somebody thinks that," she noted.
