Trump campaign staffers engage in altercation with Arlington National Cemetery official

Aug. 28, 2024, 7:06 p.m.

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Donald Trump was embroiled in controversy Wednesday after a report that his entourage shoved staff during a politicized visit to the United States’s most hallowed resting place for its war dead.

National Public Radio reported late Tuesday that an Arlington National Cemetery official tried to prevent the Republican’s aides from filming and photographing in a section reserved for those killed in recent wars – and where filming is banned.

According to the report, Trump's staff members responded by physically pushing the employee and using harsh language.

Arlington National Cemetery confirmed on Wednesday there had been an “incident” at the location, after the 78-year-old Republican presidential candidate’s visit on Monday.

Advertisement Accompanied by top campaign advisors, Trump participated in a wreath-laying ceremony with relatives of the 13 service members who lost their lives three years ago in Kabul during the frantic final hours of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year war against the Taliban.

Trump was invited to the ceremony by the families. He has made criticism of President Joe Biden’s handling of the final US retreat from Afghanistan a key note of his reelection campaign, arguing that he would have managed the withdrawal in the face of a sudden and complete Taliban victory better.

The withdrawal was executed as a component of a peace accord inked by the Trump administration with the Taliban in Doha during February 2020.

After the visit to Arlington cemetery, Trump’s campaign posted a photo of the former president standing with the relatives and giving a thumbs-up gesture.

Arlington National Cemetery, just outside Washington, said “federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign.”

The cemetery “reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants,” it said.

Trump’s campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita issued a very different interpretation of the dispute, saying a “despicable individual” had blocked the former president’s team.

Advertisement It is “a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” he said.

Trump also posted a statement on social media attributed to relatives of victims of the 2021 bombing, which said they had approved having Trump’s media team present.

The Abbey Gate suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport killed scores of local people and 13 American troops – the last US troops to die in the war.

The uproar over the Arlington incident is the latest in a long line of controversies over Trump’s relationship with the military.

Despite frequently expressing support for the military, he reportedly made disparaging remarks about fallen soldiers while in office and actively avoided being seen with wounded veterans, according to his former chief of staff.

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