Former US president and the Republican Party’s presidential candidate Donald Trump was embroiled in controversy on Wednesday after a report that his entourage shoved staff during a politicized visit to the US’ most hallowed resting place for its war dead.
US National Public Radio reported late the previous day that an Arlington National Cemetery official tried to prevent the Republican’s aides from filming and photographing in a section where those killed in recent wars are buried — and where filming is banned.
Trump staffers responded by shoving and verbally abusing the employee, the report said.
Photo: AFP
Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday confirmed there had been an “incident” at the location, after the 78-year-old Republican presidential candidate’s visit on Monday.
Accompanied by top election aides, Trump was taking part in a wreath-laying with family members of some of the 13 service members killed in Kabul in 2021 during the desperate last hours of the US pullout from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year war against the Taliban.
Trump was invited to the ceremony by the families. He has made criticism of US President Joe Biden’s handling of the final US retreat from Afghanistan a keynote of his re-election campaign, arguing that he would have managed the withdrawal in the face of a sudden and complete Taliban victory better.
The withdrawal was made as part of a peace deal signed by the Trump administration with the Taliban in Doha in 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 comanager Chris LaCivita issued a very different interpretation of the dispute, saying a “despicable individual” had blocked the former president’s team.
It is “a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” he said.
Trump’s running mate, US Senator J.D. Vance, accused the media of “creating a story where I really don’t think that there is one.”
“There is verifiable evidence that the campaign was allowed to have a photographer there,” Vance said in Pennsylvania.
Trump also posted a statement on social media attributed to relatives of victims of the 2021 bombing in Kabul, which said they had approved having Trump’s media team present.
The Abbey Gate suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport killed scores of Afghans and 13 US troops — the last US troops to die in that war.
The uproar over the Arlington incident is the latest in a long line of controversies over Trump’s relationship with the military.
While often touting his support for the armed forces, he privately mocked the war dead while president and did not want to be seen near military amputees, according to his former chief of staff.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS