Former President Donald Trump’s campaign manager called the staff at the Secretary of the Army’s office “hacks” Thursday amid continuing fallout from his disastrous appearance at Arlington National Cemetery earlier this week.
Political campaign activity is banned at the cemetery, including filming and photography, but Trump’s team tried to gather promotional footage for the Republican standard bearer at a Monday appearance alongside Gold Star families.
Trump staffers reportedly got into a verbal and physical altercation with a staffer at the cemetery who tried to stop them from illegally filming and taking photographs in Section 60, an area largely reserved for graves of soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Chris LaCivita, Trump’s campaign manager, didn’t care. He reposted a video of Trump at Arlington on X Thursday, which he initially shared Monday on X, adding the caption, “Reposting this hoping to trigger the hacks at @SecArmy.”
The Secretary of the Army, Christine E. Wormuth, is one of two civilians in the Army’s four-person senior leadership team. She became the first woman to hold the post when she was appointed by President Biden in 2021.
LaCivita, a former Marine, and the Trump campaign have remained defiant in the face of criticism over the incident. They claimed they could produce footage exonerating their people in the reported altercation, but so far have failed to do so.
The U.S. Army issued a statement Thursday noting participants in the ceremony Trump attended “were made aware of federal laws” regarding political activity at Arlington, adding that a cemetery employee who tried to make sure the law was followed “was abruptly pushed aside” by a Trump aide. The cemetery official involved in the altercation declined to press charges, and The New York Times reported that officials said she feared retaliation from Trump supporters.
The Army’s statement came a day after a video was posted to Trump’s TikTok account featuring footage from his visit to Arlington, including from a part of the cemetery where political activity is not allowed — Section 60 is largely reserved for graves of soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The family of a Green Beret who served in Afghanistan and whose grave is near where the Trump campaign filmed told the Times they were concerned his resting place was filmed without permission. The father of an Army captain who was killed in Iraq told The Daily Beast that Trump’s campaign had shown “disrespect” during their candidate’s appearance at Arlington.
