Four days into the scandal over Donald Trump’s disgraceful attempt to stage a campaign video at Arlington National Cemetery, things are only getting worse for the Republican candidate. Trump is trying to lie the story out of existence, his campaign staffers are trolling the U.S. military, and this story is definitely not going away.
A video that appeared on Trump’s TikTok account, confirmed that Trump used his appearance in the highly regulated Section 60—where veterans of more recent conflicts are buried—for campaign purposes. But on Thursday afternoon, Trump tried to deny his connection to that video, which remains up on his account as of Friday afternoon.
Confronted by a reporter, Trump first claimed that he didn’t know who had put out the video. Then he said it could have been put out by the parents of the fallen veterans he was supposedly there to honor. Then he blamed the Biden-Harris administration for the video produced by his campaign and posted to his own account. Trump said this even as his campaign team was continuing to troll the U.S. Army by releasing another video.
Never underestimate Trump’s ability to be shittier than expected.
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Reporter: “But on that hallowed ground, should they have put out the images of those—”Trump: “Well, I don’t know what the rules and regulations are. I don’t know who did it, and I—it could have been them. It could have been the parents. It could have been somebody.”
Reporter: “It was your campaign’s TikTok, though, that put out the video.”
Trump: “I really don’t know anything about it. All I do is I stood there and I said, ‘If you’d like to have a picture, we can have a picture.’ If somebody did it, this was a setup by the people in the administration. That, ‘Oh, Trump is coming to Arlington, that looks so bad for us.’”
At a rally in Michigan on Thursday, Trump doubled down on denying what was blatantly obvious: He was at Arlington to campaign.
"Last night I read that I was using the site to politic,” Trump said, regarding his visit to the military cemetery. “They say I was campaigning. I don’t need—the one thing I get is plenty of publicity. I don’t need that. I don’t need the publicity.”
He's certainly getting publicity. But this is a real test of the old adage “all publicity is good publicity.” Does that include graveside campaign videos?
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has suggested that Trump’s team staged the wreath-laying to appear as “an established memorial” that Trump took time out to attend but which was skipped by Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden.
That idea is supported by an email released by Trump’s campaign staff within minutes of his appearance saying: “Today marks three years since the attack on Abbey Gate which killed 13 American heroes, and the contrast could not be clearer. President Trump laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery today to honor the fallen. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has nothing on her schedule, and Joe Biden, who is nominally still president of the United States, is at the beach.”
Trump also invited other Republicans to join him at the campaign-created event. That included Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who later apologized after posting two images from Arlington and using other images in an email.
But Trump’s team is not apologizing for assaulting a woman official at Arlington or for violating federal law by using a military cemetery for campaign purposes. Instead, Trump’s top campaign advisor Chris LaCivita—who created the “Swift Boat” attack on Sen John Kerry during the 2004 presidential race—is giving the middle finger to the Army in another demonstration of Trump’s famous support for the military.
LaCivita’s specialty isn’t honoring veterans. It’s smearing them. He did it to Kerry. He’s trying to do the same to Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
LaCivita’s sneer at Secretary of the Army Christine E. Wormuth in the above tweet comes after the Army defended the Arlington employee who confronted Trump’s campaign over filming in the cemetery, and sharply criticized Trump’s campaign. Here’s the Army’s statement, via The New York Times:
“Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds … An A.N.C. employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside. Consistent with the decorum expected at A.N.C., this employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption.”
As MSNBC notes, the Army “generally goes out of its way to avoid issuing provocative statements related to politicians, especially during a campaign.” But it made an exception in this case only because Trump’s actions were so egregious, and because the continued attacks on the cemetery employee have been genuinely despicable.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democratic member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, has asked to see the Army’s report, and Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly has asked the Army to release the information publicly.
“I’ve joined families in grieving at Arlington Cemetery and spent my career ensuring those who served can be buried at our National cemetery,” Connolly wrote in a statement. “It’s sad but all too expected that Donald Trump would desecrate this hallowed ground and put campaign politics ahead of honoring our heroes.”
The still-emerging details suggest that this story will remain a problem for Trump. The cemetery official who was assaulted by members of Trump’s team has chosen not to file charges out of concern about how Trump’s violent supporters would react, according to military officials. However, that doesn’t mean that federal charges over filming a campaign video at a military cemetery are off the table.
On Tuesday, Trump’s campaign said that it had video showing that there was no physical altercation and that the cemetery employee was having a “mental health episode.” It still has not produced that video.
We’ve reached the stage where Trump is trying to run away from his own actions and pointing a finger in all directions. For the moment, Trump’s campaign staff is defiant. None of them should be allowed to squirm away from this disgraceful attempt to turn Arlington into a stage.
