Trump makes a mockery of Arlington to look “good”

I am not a fan of the U.S military. But let me be very clear, it’s not the people who serve whom I’m not a fan of. Not even when it comes to most of the “big brass” senior officers running things. I dislike the way the military has been used to serve political and selfish needs like empire-building and vengeance and power-grabbing. Things that are driven mostly by the civilian, non-military people who ultimately call the shots, whether from the Oval Office or the offices of the Pentagon or wherever. I’m also not a fan of how grossly huge the military budget is and how weighted it is toward things that don’t support the troops.

The people who serve in the military—I’m thankful they exist. I just wish they only had to serve to protect our country from harm rather than be sent so often to do it’s dirty work. I have friends who have served in the military. I am against how the military is often deployed and misused, but I am for the people in uniform.

Trump, however, is not. Aside from getting strings pulled and claiming so-called bone spurs (which I’m fairly certain he didn’t have and/or wouldn’t have gotten in the way of serving) to avoid the draft when the draft was still a thing, this is a man who famously said that he preferred soldiers who didn’t get captured, a dig at John McCain but really a slap in the face for any military person who’s ever been captured in the line of duty.

Now he has used Arlington National Cemetery to try to boost his political image in the weeks leading up to the election. The thing is, there is a ban forbidding partisan political activity at the cemetery. Trump isn’t the first to ignore or try to skirt that rule, but he’s certainly the most brazen, especially as a commander-in-chief with the least amount of respect for military personnel ever.

Last week, an official at the cemetery tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in an area where recent U.S. casualties are buried—something that is very much against cemetery rules and against federal law. Trump’s people with him then got into a verbal and physical altercation with that person for doing their job because Trump gets what he wants, regardless of rules or laws or other people.

Whether or not the cemetery will file formal charges—because what Trump did was, again, a violation of federal law even without the altercation—remains to be seen, but a report was filed.

This isn’t the first time Trump has disrespected the military but this is one of the grosser ways he’s done so and this time he isn’t a sitting president when he’s doing it.

Whether the current sparring back and forth between Kamala Harris and Trump is appropriate and whether she should keep hammering at the issue is a matter of some debate in the news and online right now. But I agree when she noted that Trump “is unable to comprehend anything other than service to himself.” It’s not like we need the reminders of how awful Trump is. At least we shouldn’t. But I do find it interesting that after being muted in media coverage somewhat after Biden made way for Harris to run, the way Trump returns to strong media attention is with one of the tackiest and least respectful displays of attention-seeking and chest-puffing. The man doesn’t care about anyone, and least of all military personnel, whom he and the rest of the GOP are happy to deny veteran’s benefits and the like after using them for political ends again and again and again.