The Atlantic: Trump referred to fallen American soldiers as 'suckers' and 'losers'
Aldous Pennyfarthing
4 min read
The Military Times recently ran a poll that showed Trump running behind Joe Biden among U.S. service members. It was particularly eye-opening considering that military personnel typically favor Republican commanders-in-chief. (Who the eff knows why, but they do.)
Well, that ex-advantage may erode even further in the wake of these little revelatory nuggets.
According to The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, Trump has expressed nearly limitless contempt for American soldiers who gave their last full measure of devotion.
When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.
Trump rejected the idea of the visit 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. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.
Honestly, I had to double-check to make sure this wasn’t a satirical article, because Jesus Jiminy Christ, Martha. Even for Trump this is outrageous.
Oh, and that Trump “gaffe” involving John McCain and his POW status? Yeah, apparently that’s just the way Trump thinks.
Trump remained fixated on McCain, one of the few prominent Republicans to continue criticizing him after he won the nomination. When McCain died, in August 2018, Trump told his senior staff, according to three sources with direct knowledge of this event, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser,” the president told aides. Trump was not invited to McCain’s funeral. (These sources, and others quoted in this article, spoke on condition of anonymity. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany did not respond to email and telephone requests for comment.)
Again, this is The Atlantic, not Andy Borowitz.
Trump’s understanding of heroism has not evolved since he became president. According to sources with knowledge of the president’s views, he seems to genuinely not understand why Americans treat former prisoners of war with respect. Nor does he understand why pilots who are shot down in combat are honored by the military. On at least two occasions since becoming president, according to three sources with direct knowledge of his views, Trump referred to former President George H. W. Bush as a “loser” for being shot down by the Japanese as a Navy pilot in World War II.
Fucking losers. How can anyone be stupid enough not to get a fake doctor’s note that claims you have a mysterious, undetectable foot problem?
Goldberg also regales us with a story about Trump accompanying then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to the grave of Kelly’s son Robert, a Marine Corps first lieutenant who was killed in Afghanistan. Apparently Trump said, “I don’t get it, what was in it for them?”
Kelly (who declined to comment for this story) initially believed, people close to him said, that Trump was making a ham-handed reference to the selflessness of America’s all-volunteer force. But later he came to realize that Trump simply does not understand non-transactional life choices.
“He can’t fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself,” one of Kelly’s friends, a retired four-star general, told me. “He just thinks that anyone who does anything when there’s no direct personal gain to be had is a sucker. There’s no money in serving the nation.” Kelly’s friend went on to say, “Trump can’t imagine anyone else’s pain. That’s why he would say this to the father of a fallen marine on Memorial Day in the cemetery where he’s buried.”
Oh, also, when discussing Belleau Wood, Trump asked, according to Goldberg, “Who were the good guys in this war?”
So he’s not only deplorable, he’s also completely ignorant of U.S. history.
But, hey, he can dry-hump a flag better than anyone in Washington. And that includes Joe Biden.
Oh, and just in case any portion of your lunch still clings to your digestive tract …
Trump has been, for the duration of his presidency, fixated on staging military parades, but only of a certain sort. In a 2018 White House planning meeting for such an event, Trump asked his staff not to include wounded veterans, on grounds that spectators would feel uncomfortable in the presence of amputees. “Nobody wants to see that,” he said.
“This guy is a natural. Sometimes I laugh so hard I cry.” — Bette Midler on Aldous J. Pennyfarthing, via Twitter. Find out what made dear Bette break up. Dear Fcking Lunatic: 101 Obscenely Rude Letters to Donald Trump and its boffo sequels Dear Prsident A**clown: 101 More Rude Letters to Donald Trump and Dear F*cking Moron: 101 More Letters to Donald Trump by Aldous J. Pennyfarthing are now available for a song! Click those links, yo!
