Fred Trump III slammed his uncle Donald Trump during a television interview on Monday, attacking the former president’s record of insulting soldiers and claiming: “He just doesn’t give a s—t about them.”
The Republican nominee’s nephew appeared on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House after Donald Trump spent the weekend defending himself from a firestorm of criticism over his controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery last week, where a member of his campaign staff allegedly got into a physical altercation with an official at the burial ground.
Host Nicolle Wallace asked Fred Trump about the story and his uncle’s previous slights against wounded and killed service members, including his reported descriptions of the fallen as “suckers” and “losers” (Donald Trump denies making the remarks, despite his own former chief of staff claiming that he did).
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“We spoke the last time we were here about how I had the honor of meeting Senator [John] McCain,” Fred Trump said. Donald Trump notoriously said the late senator was only considered a “war hero ‘cause he was captured” during the Vietnam War, and that he prefers “people that weren’t captured.”
“This is a genuine hero,” Fred Trump said of McCain. “Let’s make no mistake about it. The fact that Donald called him in essence a ‘loser’—I don’t get it. But anyone who is disabled or anyone who he deems lesser than him is a loser which, ok, that’s just the way he is. That ain’t gonna change.”
Wallace then asked why Fred Trump thinks people in the military support his uncle.
“I have no idea,” Fred Trump said. “And I know many people who are in the military and I had the pleasure of speaking on an interview with National Defense Radio, which goes out to the armed services. And I told the truth—I basically told this story and I said that he just doesn’t give a s—t about them. He just doesn’t.”
“It’s the great Godfather II,” Fred Trump continued. “One of the last scenes when Sonny says, ‘Country ain’t your blood, kid,’ and Michael Corleone says, ‘No, I don’t believe that.’ Donald believes in Donald.”
