For US politicians there are two sacred cows: God and the military. Even the stupidest of them know to always say only positive things about either in public. Trump had been particularly assiduous in this, waving the Bible about at photo ops and lavishly praising on the military. So it reflects an incredible level of obtuseness that Trump made derogatory remarks about soldiers who died, were injured, or captured in the many, many wars that the US has engaged in, calling them losers and suckers.
Because he see everything in terms of “What’s in it for me?”, he cannot understand that other people do not always do things out of pure self-interest. While I am sure some people joined the military not for reasons of service but just because it was a steady job that provided benefits, that does not mean that they are losers or that what they suffered can be so callously dismissed.
The problem for Trump is that while the story originally appeared in TheAtlantic magazine that he could write off as having a liberal bias and quoted only anonymous sources, other media outlets and even Fox News reporters have confirmed it, and this has clearly alarmed the Trump campaign and, sensing that this could mean trouble for them, they have gone on a counter-attack blitz.
Among those was the Fox News national security correspondent, Jennifer Griffin, who confirmed in a Twitter thread that Trump called soldiers “suckers”, had questioned why anyone would want to become a soldier and had not wanted to honor war dead at the Aisne-Marne cemetery in France.
Amid furious denials of the story from the White House and Trump allies, Griffin’s reporting probably touched a nerve as it came from the usually reliably pro-Trump Fox News, whose conservative leanings and pro-Trump opinion show hosts are reliable cheerleaders for the president.
In a tweet Trump said: “Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting. Never even called us for comment. Fox News is gone!”
The White House has moved to deny the report unusually forcefully perhaps fearful of the scandal’s impact on military-supporting conservatives. Trump himself dismissed it as a politically motivated “hoax”.
The problem for Trump is that his comments are utterly believable, because he has said similar things in the past though of course he denies them now. What is surprising is that he is so obtuse as to not keep these thoughts to himself. I was not a fan of Pete Buttigieg when he ran for the Democratic nomination but I thought he was very effective in countering the efforts of a Fox News personality to cast doubt on whether Trump actually said it.
In Trump’s world, winners play golf and get others do do the fighting for them.
Joe Biden and others have forcefully attacked Trump on this issue and you can be sure that they will keep pounding on it. And other people have stepped forward to say that they heard Trump say similar things.
Elizabeth Neumann, a former assistant secretary of counter-terrorism in the Department of Homeland Security, and Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff in that department, said the account was true, asserting that Trump’s low opinion of soldiers killed and wounded in combat was well known inside the administration.
It will be interesting to see if any of the anonymous sources in the original article decide to go public.
Maybe it’s time to start saying that “not everything Trump says is a lie.” He’s right that US military sacrifice is a sham, and that participants in the military are the ignorant servants of an immoral global hegemony. This is Trump’s “broken clock moment” and he’s too cowardly to stick up for himself, as usual, so he’s going to have to hug some more flags, or something, until his base calms back down.
Marcus Ranum (#1) --
To you or I, they were suckers because they bought the propaganda. But to a coward like Cheetolini, they were suckers because they couldn’t evade conscription or have daddy get them a cushy and safe position like “liquor officer” as Pat Robertson’s did.
I really hope this finally makes the US military turn on him. They should have years ago.
George W. Bush was famously in the Champaign Unit of the National Guard, and Trump said of John McCain: I prefer war heroes who WEREN’T captured.
Matt, re your quotation “[…] and Trump said of John McCain: I prefer war heroes who WEREN’T captured.”
You do realise that this means Trump is saying that McCain was a war hero, right?
(Not the best example of denigration, that)
Actually what Trump said was “I like people who weren’t captured” so he wasn’t calling him a hero.
Good pickup, Mano. Obs, I was going by the adduced purported quotation.
Trump supports the military, it is the servicemen for whom he has no respect.
As in: “I love humanity, it’s people I can’t stand.”
Marcus, I understand. If I were capable, I would like to total the cost of all the money spent in my lifetime on military stuff. It is necessary to use the wildcard word if but if we did that, how much could we have improved the lives of all people on the planet
I refuse to disparage the youngsters who are todays cannon fodder though. They are doing something that our misguided society thinks is necessary. In 1969 I enlisted in the US Army for 3 years. I believed then and do now that we all owe service to our society (note: society not country). I vehemently deny the right to ask to become killers. Wat changed my mind was the army, and seeing echoes of President Eisenhauer’s warning about the military complex. Working for corporate americe confirmed the other half.
Robert Estrada