The Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, reportedly pulled strings to get Donald Trump into Arlington National Cemetery, amid what has become a scandal and a crisis for the ex-president's campaign to re-take the White House and once again become Commander in Chief. Despite federal law that prohibits using the hallowed resting place of 400,000 of the nation's service members for political purposes, on Monday the Trump campaign photographed, filmed, and released video across multiple social media platforms showing the one-term president and convicted felon awaiting sentencing participating in a wreath laying ceremony followed by him standing in a sacred section where photography is highly-regulated, and standing by several headstones, grinning, in his famous "thumbs up" pose, which was widely condemned.
The U.S. Dept. of the Army oversees and maintains Arlington National Cemetery. According to a Washington Post report Wednesday evening, "Pentagon officials were deeply concerned about the former president turning the visit into a campaign stop, but they also didn’t want to block him from coming, according to Defense Department officials and internal messages reviewed by The Washington Post."
"Officials said they wanted to respect the wishes of grieving family members who wanted Trump there, but at the same time were wary of Trump’s record of politicizing the military. So they laid out ground rules they hoped would wall off politics from the final resting place of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their nation."
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Trump's team was told he could attend only in his personal capacity and that campaign staff members were not allowed. Some of his top campaign staffers reportedly attended Monday's event despite the rules set by cemetery officials. Also in attendance were several Republican politicians, including Governor Spencer Cox of Utah, now under fire for using a photo of the event in a re-election campaign fundraising email.
"No hats, signs or banners were allowed, according to military officials," The Post also reported. "No speeches. Reporters and photographers could follow Trump for a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns, but not to the 14-acre plot where veterans from recent wars are buried, known as Section 60. The media was kept away, unable to see the altercation — or anything else, for that matter — during that part of his visit."
That "altercation," reportedly involved a cemetery official who later filed a report stating Trump's team verbally and physically assaulted her, according to multiple reports. She has said she is unwilling to press charges out of fear of retaliation from Trump's supporters, according to The New York Times. The Trump campaign denies the allegations while campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told The Times the reason for her decision to refuse to press charges “is ridiculous and sounds like someone who has Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
The cemetery "employee tried to enforce the rules as provided to her by blocking Trump’s team from bringing cameras to the graves of U.S. service members killed in recent years, according to a senior defense official and another person briefed on the incident," The Post adds. "A larger male campaign aide insisted the camera was allowed and pushed past the cemetery employee, leaving her shocked."
The Daily Caller reports Monday's event "would have not happened without Speaker Johnson,” according to an unnamed source.
"Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had to intervene to get former President Donald Trump into Arlington National Cemetery for the third anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal with Gold Star families, a family told the Daily Caller," according to the right-wing website.
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That source also reportedly told The Daily Caller, “Arlington Cemetery officials claimed the families didn’t want any media, photography, or videography at Section 60, contradicting what the families had actually requested. The families were fine with the media, designated by the Trump team, but Arlington kept pushing back, obstructing the process.”
Not all families were fine with Trump's appearance and photography.
"The family of a Green Beret who died by suicide after serving eight combat tours and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery expressed concern on Wednesday that Donald J. Trump’s campaign had filmed his gravesite without permission as Mr. Trump stood in an area where campaign photography isn’t allowed," The New York Times reports. "Relatives of Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano issued their statement two days after Mr. Trump’s visit."
"Sergeant Marckesano died on July 7, 2020, after moving to Washington to begin a job at the Pentagon. He had three children, and friends said he had chronic post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in combat. He earned Silver and Bronze Stars during his service. His gravesite is adjacent to that of Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, a Marine who was killed in the 2021 bombing at Abbey Gate outside the Kabul airport in Afghanistan."
The Times reports while the Hoover family gave Trump permission to photograph, the Marckesano family did not, yet his grave "was shown in photos from the visit that were published online. A video was posted to Mr. Trump’s TikTok account featuring footage from the Section 60 visit and the gravestones from behind, with narration criticizing the handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021."
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