Trump team downplays Arlington 'incident' in an effort to minimize political fallout
Trump's campaign is playing down reports of an altercation during his visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, a move that signals its concern about potential political fallout from the incident.
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump's campaign is playing down reports of an altercation during his visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, a move that signals its concern about potential political fallout from the incident.
“A nameless bureaucrat at Arlington whose job it is to preserve the dignity of the cemetery is doing the complete opposite in trying to make what was a very solemn and respectful event into something it was not,” said Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita, a retired Marine who was with Trump at the cemetery Monday.
Trump has long portrayed himself as a champion of service members and veterans — an image bolstered by participants in Monday's ceremony. But he has also created a pattern of disparaging service members that has led even some former aides to question the authenticity of his support for the military.
The latest episode threatens to blunt his attacks on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris over a 2021 terrorist assault at the so-called Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport, which killed 13 American service members.
It was the third anniversary of the bombings, which occurred during the harried U.S. exit from Afghanistan, that took Trump to the Arlington burial ground, in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, on Monday. He laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to honor those who died in the bombings and then moved to Section 60, an area reserved for participants in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
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