An Arlington National Cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” in an altercation with convicted felony and former president Donald Trump’s staff during a wreath-laying ceremony to honor service members killed in the Afghanistan War withdrawal, but she declined to press charges, an Army spokesman said on August 29.
The Army spokesman said the cemetery employee was trying to make sure those participating in the August 26 wreath-laying ceremony to mark the third anniversary of the attack were following the rules, which “clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds.”
A TikTok video of the visit that was later shared by Trump shows scenes of him at the cemetery and includes a voiceover of the Republican presidential nominee blaming the Biden administration for the Afghanistan withdrawal which he had negotiated during his turbulent term in office.
“This employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption,” the Army spokesman’s statement said. “This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”
The incident was reported to the police, but because the employee decided not to press charges, the Army said it considered the matter closed. Arlington National Cemetery is the resting place for more than 400,000 service members, veterans, and their families.
Campaigning in Michigan on August 29, Trump said surviving family members had asked to take a photo with him at the cemetery. “They ask me to have a picture, and they say I was campaigning,” he complained without addressing the TikTok video.
Jon Stoltz, a U.S. Army veteran and co-founder of veterans advocacy group VoteVets, which supports the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris, said Trump tried to use a sacred place “for a political ceremony.”
“They don’t have a right to do that with other veterans who are there,” Stoltz said.
The Arlington incident came less than two weeks after Trump came under criticism for the way he discussed the Congressional Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration for service members.
Despite the Veterans of Foreign Wars admonishing Trump by calling his comments “flippant” and “asinine,” he repeated a version of the remark in Michigan, saying he’d “rather get” the Medal of Freedom because the Medal of Honor recipients, “oftentimes they’ve suffered greatly, right? They’ve suffered greatly or they’re not around.”
Earlier this year, then-Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley condemned Trump for questioning her husband’s whereabouts while he was serving a National Guard mission abroad.
His former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired general, has alleged that Trump referred to Americans killed in World War I as “suckers” and “losers.”
Michael Tyler, a spokesperson for Vice President Harris, called the reports “pretty sad when it’s all said and done.”
“This is what we’ve come to expect from Donald Trump and his team,” Tyler said on CNN. “Donald Trump is a person who wants to make everything all about Donald Trump. He’s also somebody who has a history of demeaning and degrading military service members, those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.”
Democratic U.S. Representative Gerry Connolly of Virginia has called on cemetery officials to release more information about what happened.
“It’s sad but all too expected that Donald Trump would desecrate this hallowed ground and put campaign politics ahead of honoring our heroes,” said Representative Connolly. “His behavior and that of his campaign is abhorrent and shameful.”
Families of three of the slain service members had invited Trump to the ceremony, saying the former president knew their children’s stories. Some of the families of these service members spoke out in support of Trump at the Republican National Convention in July, in part to blunt criticism that Trump was not supportive of veterans.
The suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, which killed 13 American service members and more than 170 Afghans on August 26, 2021, was one of the lowest points of the Biden administration and followed a withdrawal commitment and timeline that the Trump administration had negotiated with the Taliban the previous year.
The Trump campaign has been facing blowback since an NPR report said that two Trump campaign staff members on August 26 had “verbally abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the Trump campaign was warned about not taking photographs in Section 60 before their arrival and the altercation.
“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,” a cemetery official said in a statement. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants. We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.”
Photos of the cemetery visit showed Trump standing by the graves and flashing a thumbs-up sign next to relatives of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover and Sgt. Nicole Gee. He also laid wreaths for Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, whose family was not present.
The family of a decorated Green Beret whose grave appeared in the photos of Trump’s visit issued a statement expressing support for the families who lost loved ones in the Kabul airport bombing, but asking for understanding for the concerns from relatives of service members whose graves were near them.
“We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored and respected accordingly,” said the statement, which was sent by the sister of Silver Star recipient Master Sgt. Andrew C. Marckesano, who died in 2020, on behalf of the family.
The TikTok video shared by Trump shows several clips of his visit to the cemetery. As a guitar strums in the background, there is a voiceover of him saying: “We lost great, great people. What a horrible day it was. We didn’t lose one person in 18 months, and then they took over. That disaster, the leaving of Afghanistan.”
The 18-month stretch without any combat deaths in Afghanistan included about six months of the Biden administration.
Fred Wellman, a 22-year Army veteran who served in Iraq and who is supporting Vice President Harris for president, said it was a mistake for the Army to put all of the weight on the Arlington National Cemetery staffer and let the issue go after the staffer decided not to press charges.
“Everyone who is a veteran who served since 9/11 is one to two degrees of separation from someone buried in Section 60,” he said. “The Army is the keeper of that place for us.”
A Pentagon investigation into the deadly attack concluded that the suicide bomber acted alone and that those killings were not preventable. But critics have slammed the Biden administration for the catastrophic evacuation, saying it should have started earlier than it did.
Allison Jaslow, a former Army captain who leads the nonpartisan advocacy organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, applauded when Vice President Harris picked a military veteran as her running mate.
“There are plenty of places appropriate for politics — Arlington is not one of them,” said Jaslow.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz served a total of 24 years in various units and jobs in the Army National Guard. The campaign has also promoted Walz’s service as ranking member on the House Veterans Affairs Committee during his time in Congress.
Referring to the Trump incident, Jaslow said aspiring elected officials should not campaign at Arlington National Cemetery.
On its website, VoteVets offers a number of pro-Harris-Walz items, including camouflage yard signs, of which Stoltz said the group had sold 10,000 in recent weeks.
“People are starting to view the military as just another thing that Trump wants to use for his own gain,” Stoltz said.
