There has been much debate around whether President Trump called Marines buried in Aisne-Marne American Cemetery "losers and suckers." The crux of this issue for most people seems to center around the reliability of anonymous sources, whether Fox news confirmed key aspects of the story, how many firsthand accounts there are of people hearing the President NOT say those things, etc.
None of that is what this post is about. I'm not terribly interested in whether or not President Trump said those particular things on that particular occasion. If it is a lie, it is a believable one because of the kernal of truth behind it.
What I do know is that he said
this: "He's not a war hero. He's a war hero 'cause he was captured. I like people who weren't captured ok?"
Many would like to pretend that this is an insult specifically and exclusively to John McCain, but it is not. It is an insult to every US POW that the Commander in Chief only likes the people who weren't captured.
It is not hard to understand his reasoning here. As he says elsewhere on this same occasion, "I don't like losers." This is telling of his winners/losers worldview, and consistent with what he has said and done long before becoming president, and continuing through his presidency.
He likes the soldiers that go to the place, kill the bad guys, and then come home safe and sound. That's how you win at Call of Duty. You complete all the mission objectives and survive all the levels in order to win, and that makes you a 'winner.' You don't win if you get captured halfway through the level. You lose. That makes you a 'loser.'
So what if you get killed halfway through the level? What does that make you according to this winners/losers worldview lens?
Regardless of whether he actually said it or not in regards to the Marines buried in Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, it does not stretch the imagination at all to imagine Trump saying "He's not a war hero. He's a war hero 'cause he got himself killed. I like people who weren't killed ok?"
freebeacon.com
