Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita has decided to take the team on a death spiral against America’s military, calling the office of the Army secretary a bunch of “hacks.”
“Reposting this hoping to trigger the hacks at @SecArmy,” LaCivita wrote Thursday afternoon, resharing a campaign video of Donald Trump at Arlington National Cemetery earlier this week.
Trump’s decision Tuesday to film at the military graveyard—and in Section 60, where recent military casualties are buried—violated federal law, which prohibits politically related activities in the cemetery such as taking photos and videos in support of a political campaign. The criminal behavior reportedly sparked a verbal and physical fight between Trump’s surrogates and an Arlington National Cemetery official who attempted to rein in the campaign’s videotaping.
In a rare statement, the Army sided with the cemetery official on Thursday morning, writing that the military organization believed the official had been “abruptly pushed aside” and “unfairly attacked” by Trump staffers.
“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 ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside,” an Army spokesperson said.
“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked,” they continued. “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 Trump campaign claimed that they had been given permission to videotape by the families of fallen service members, but unfortunately for Trump, that doesn’t change federal law.
LaCivita’s words are unlikely to help Trump’s efforts to attract more veterans to his side. The Republican presidential nominee’s anti-military rhetoric has been a point of contention with current and former service members in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the reputed Vietnam-era draft dodger came under fire for arguing that the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to one of his billionaire donors was “much better” than the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor. That comment struck a nerve with veterans, who connected Trump’s disrespectful rhetoric to a 2020 Atlantic report that caught the former president repeatedly referring to fallen soldiers as “suckers and losers.”
