9/4/20
President Donald Trump is once again fending off a fresh set of attacks from the military, this time as he's forced to explain away allegations that he disparaged fallen and wounded service members, just before a critical stretch of the election. Trump and other administration officials moved quickly on Thursday and into Friday to blast a report from the Atlantic, which cited anonymous sources saying the president disparaged wounded and fallen U.S. service members on multiple occasions and that he asked that disabled veterans be excluded from military parades. It’s a difficult situation for Trump, who from the beginning of his presidency has surrounded himself with military trappings and boasted about “rebuilding” the armed services. Experts and former top military officials say the quotes from the article are dangerous not just for losing actual voters tied to the military — but potentially turning off a narrow slice of undecided voters who may not love either 2020 candidate but still revere troops and veterans. “There is a widespread appreciation for young women and men that are in the military, even if people don’t necessarily agree with the policy,” said retired Gen. Ben Hodges, who served as the commanding general of U.S. Army Europe until the end of 2017. “The fact is that there are so many things that the president has done or said that makes him vulnerable to accusations like this.”
During his first campaign for president, Trump prompted outrage when he called the late-Sen. John McCain, who was captured and tortured by North Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War, a “loser” and said he likes people who “weren’t captured.” More recently, several prominent retired generals, including Gen. James Mattis, rebuked Trump in June for threatening to deploy active-duty troops in American cities to quash civil unrest. “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis wrote at the time. Since then, Trump has pushed other agenda items that are unpopular among service members and veterans, including shooting down plans to ban the Confederate flag from military facilities and rejecting a move to rename bases that honor Confederate leaders. “I’m disgusted by the president’s words and actions. I don’t have any firsthand knowledge of the reported incidents, but they ring true to me because of previous reporting and things Trump has said,” said retired Marine Corps Col. Dave Lapan, who formerly served as spokesperson for DoD and Homeland Security under Kelly.
