Former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign team received a warning not to take photos at Arlington National Cemetery before an altercation broke out, according to an Associated Press (AP) report on Wednesday.
Trump, the Republican presidential candidate for November’s election, was invited to Arlington on Monday – the resting place of more than 400,000 U.S. troops, veterans and their families – to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony to remember the 13 soldiers killed during the 2021 Afghanistan war withdrawal. His invitation came from some of the families of the deceased soldiers.
On Tuesday, NPR reported that two Trump campaign staffers “verbally abused and pushed aside” a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing the burial site known as Section 60 for soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, citing a source familiar with the incident.
A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AP on Wednesday that Trump’s campaign team had been warned in advance not to take Section 60 photographs.
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Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, meanwhile told AP that Trump’s team was allowed to bring a photographer and denied the claim that a campaign staffer shoved a cemetery official.
“The fact is that a private photographer was allowed access to the grounds and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, obviously suffering from a mental disorder, decided to block access to members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” Cheung said.
In this context, Trump published a letter signed by five family members of two of the deceased soldiers. It said: “The President and his team have behaved with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity toward all of our soldiers, especially our beloved children.”
“For a despicable individual to physically prevent President Trump’s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is disgraceful and undeserving of representing the hollowed-out grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” Chris LaCivita, a top adviser to Trump’s campaign, said in a statement. “Whoever this individual is, spreading these lies dishonors the men and women of our armed forces.”
While Arlington acknowledged in a statement that an “incident” had occurred and that a report had been filed, it did not provide any details about what happened.
Cemetery officials explained Arlington’s approach to campaigning on its hallowed ground.
“Federal law prohibits political campaigning or election-related activities at Army National Cemetery military cemeteries, including photographers, content creators, or others who are there for the purposes of or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” cemetery officials said in a statement. “Arlington National Cemetery has emphasized this law and its prohibitions and widely communicated it to all attendees. We can confirm that there was an incident and a report was filed.”
Michael Tyler, a spokesman for Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, called the reports of the incident “pretty sad, considering everything” during a recent appearance on CNN.
“That’s what we expect from Donald Trump and his team,” Tyler said. “Donald Trump is a person who wants to make everything Donald Trump’s. He’s also someone who has a history of humiliating and degrading military personnel who have made the ultimate sacrifice.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, called on Arlington to release more information about Monday’s incident.
At the end of August 2021, a suicide bomber carried out an attack on Kabul airport as US troops and Afghans were desperately trying to leave the country. In addition to the 13 US soldiers, over 170 Afghans were killed. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
While the Pentagon concluded that the deaths at Kabul airport were unavoidable, others blamed the Biden administration for a chaotic evacuation that should have begun earlier.
This article contains reporting from The Associated Press.
