Three years after America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan have passed, and former president Donald Trump wanted to remember those who died. But his good intentions resulted in a dramatic spiff involving his campaign team.
On Monday August 26, the three-year anniversary of the withdrawal that killed 13 service members trying to evacuate their position in Afghanistan, Trump went to Arlington National Cemetery with the fallen military members’ families. Cemetery officials said that there was an “incident” between members of the campaign and cemetery officials during the visit.
During his time at the beautiful cemetery, Trump was involved in a wreath laying ceremony held at the solemn Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and stopped by Section 60, the cemetery’s designated place for fallen soldiers of armed conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. In this second section, the Trump campaign said, they were given specific approval to bring “designated media” representatives.
But general rules, in accordance with federal law and regulations for Army National Military Cemeteries, do not permit such campaign media presences even if requested by veterans’ families. A reportedly heated interaction occurred at Section 60 between members of Trump’s campaign and one official who worked at the cemetery.
The cemetery said in a statement that it was following procedure and laws which prohibit political campaigns from hosting events at military cemeteries that would promote a given partisan campaign. It added that this rule was “reinforced and widely shared” with “all participants.”
According to some, the two campaign staffers were verbally and physically interacting with the cemetery official. But that testimony has been contradicted by Steven Cheung of the Trump campaign, who said there was “no physical altercation” and maintained that a “private photographer” had received permission to be at the ceremony and that someone “suffering” from mental health impairments went on to “physically block” staffers during the ceremony.
Though details remain uncertain, the cemetery later confirmed that “there was an incident” on Monday and that a “report was filed.” The controversy comes less than three months before Trump faces off with Vice President Kamala Harris in the highly anticipated presidential election.
