The U.S. Army has disputed a claim from Donald Trump’s campaign that nobody on his staff got physical with an employee of Arlington National Cemetery on Monday—and slammed his aides for attacking the woman.
Instead, the military branch confirmed Thursday that a member of Trump’s staff “abruptly pushed” a woman employee after she sought to “ensure adherence” to cemetery rules that bars recording for political purposes.
The Army said the woman reported the incident to local cops but ultimately decided against pressing charges. It remains unclear who in Trump’s orbit did the alleged pushing.
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“The ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked,” the Army said in a statement. “ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve.”
The clash got physical in Section 60 of the cemetery, a 14-acre area where U.S. service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are laid to rest. Only cemetery staff members are authorized to take photographs or film in the area, but Trump’s campaign has insisted they received approval to have cameras there.
The Army, which oversees the country’s national cemeteries, said it considers the matter closed.
Donald Trump was slammed for throwing up his signature hand gesture and smiling next to the graves of soldiers killed in action.
Utah Gov. Spencer J. CoxTrump’s visit to Arlington has proved to be quite the headache for him this week.
The former president was first criticized for smiling and giving a thumbs up next to fallen soldiers’ graves. A prominent veterans group slammed him for his cemetery decorum, and a loved one of a soldier whose headstone was photographed told NPR they did not give permission for the marker to appear in photos.
Allison Jaslow, the CEO of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told NPR he was in disbelief that Trump’s team brought cameras into such a sacred section of the cemetery.
“It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that anyone who is expecting to be an elected official would think of doing something like this,” he said.
Criticisms against Trump went into overdrive after allegations emerged about the “physical altercation” with cemetery staff, however. Trump’s campaign confirmed that an incident occurred between staff and a cemetery employee but insisted it did not involve anything physical.
A spokesperson for Trump, Steven Cheung, told The Daily Beast in a statement Wednesday that “there was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.” He did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request to share that footage, however.
In a separate statement to NPR, Cheung also made a point of disparaging the worker who the Army says was just doing her job to protect the sanctity of Arlington—the largest resting place for U.S. veterans and soldiers killed in action.
Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday. It was the third anniversary of the final day of the U.S.’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which left 13 American soldiers killed in action.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” Cheung said.
Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to Trump, took the nastiness to another level and called the woman a “a despicable individual.”
Arlington has long had a strict rule in place against politicians politicizing their visits to the sacred site. Yet Trump’s campaign quickly turned his visit into a TikTok this week in which a voiceover, narrated by the former president, took subtle jabs at Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as footage of Trump at Arlington was played.
“We lost 13 great, great people,” Trump says in the clip. “What a horrible day it was. We didn’t lose one person in 18 months and then they took over that disaster, the leaving of Afghanistan.”
The scandal adds to Trump’s history of flubs when dealing with the military and veterans. He was accused by those formerly close to him of dodging the Vietnam War draft by making up an injury. He also infamously disparaged the intelligence of service members and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades, The Atlantic reported in 2020.
That report, which has had its allegations publicly confirmed by some in Trump’s orbit, also alleged that Trump referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who died at Belleau Wood—a WWI battle—as “suckers” for getting killed. In a separate conversation on the matter, he reportedly referred to soldiers killed in action as “losers.”
“Why should I go to that cemetery?” he was accused of saying. “It’s filled with losers.”
John Kelly, photographed in the Oval Office in 2018, was Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff.
Jonathan Ernst/ReutersThe retired four-star Marine general John Kelly, who was Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, is among those who’ve spoken out about the former president’s flippant remarks about war veterans.
Kelly was once on the receiving end of one of those comments himself in 2018. That’s when Trump, during a Memorial Day visit to the grave of Kelly’s son inside Arlington, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
