Trump, cemetery staffers in shoving incident
Political campaign or election-related activities within military cemeteries is prohibited
Daily TribunePolitical campaign or election-related activities within military cemeteries is prohibited
Former US president Donald Trump at a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday.
Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images via AFP
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump was embroiled in controversy Wednesday after a report that his entourage shoved staff during a politicized visit to the country’s most hallowed resting place for its war dead.
National Public Radio reported late the previous day that an Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) 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.
ANC confirmed on Wednesday 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 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 made as part of a peace deal signed by the Trump administration with the Taliban in Doha in February 2020.
After the visit to ANC, Trump’s campaign posted a photo of the former president standing with the relatives and giving a thumbs-up gesture.
Campaign activities ‘prohibited’
ANC, 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.”
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.
It is “a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” he said.
“There is verifiable evidence that the campaign was allowed to have a photographer there,” Trump’s running mate JD Vance said in Pennsylvania — an assertion contradicted by the cemetery’s statement.
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.
