Two members of former President Donald Trump’s campaign reportedly had a verbal and physical altercation on Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery who tried to stop them from filming in an area where recent U.S. military casualties are buried.
NPR first reported details of the incident, which took place as Trump held a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the third anniversary of an attack on American troops as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan. Thirteen service members were killed during the attack at Kabul airport, a tragedy the former president has blamed on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
A source told NPR that staff at the 639-acre national cemetery in Virginia had let the Trump campaign know that only cemetery officials are allowed to take photos or video in Section 60, where recent casualties are buried. But Trump staffers reportedly attempted to do so anyway.
When an Arlington National Cemetery official tried to stop them, the two campaign staffers “verbally abused and pushed the official aside,” NPR reported.
In a statement to media outlets, Arlington National Cemetery confirmed that there had been an “incident” on Monday, adding that a report had been filed.
“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, which is maintained by the U.S. Army, said in a statement. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”
The Trump campaign, in remarks to NPR, maintained it did nothing wrong and had video footage to prove it. HuffPost has reached out to the campaign for further comment.
Donald Trump visits Arlington Cemetery on Monday to pay tribute to the 13 U.S. service members killed during the 2021 Afghanistan evacuation.
Photo by Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto via Getty Images
“We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Steven Cheung, the spokesman for the campaign, said in a statement. “The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”
Trump has faced criticism over a series of troubling statements about the military during his political career. He recently drew fierce condemnation after telling a billionaire donor that the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — he was bestowing on her was “much better” than its military equivalent, the Medal of Honor.
“That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version,” Trump told GOP mega-donor Miriam Adelson earlier this month. “It’s actually much better because everyone gets the congressional Medal of Honor, that’s soldiers, they’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.”
He has also been dogged by comments made in 2020 in which he reportedly called American service members who died in World War I “suckers” and “losers.” He has denied making those remarks, but former aides have confirmed he did.
Trump also sparked controversy when he said the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was not a war hero because he had been captured. McCain endured more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
