Fact check: Trump’s Arlington Cemetery visit

Former president Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed that there was “no conflict” or “fighting” when he visited Arlington National Cemetery last week, despite multiple reports of an altercation involving Trump campaign staff at the cemetery.

Trump was at the cemetery Aug. 26 to mark the third anniversary of a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops during the evacuation of Afghanistan. Trump and his staff defied requests from cemetery officials to avoid taking photos or videos among the gravestones, with the aim of adhering to a federal law that forbids campaign activities at military cemeteries. A female cemetery worker was “abruptly pushed aside” by male Trump aides as she sought to enforce the guidelines, cemetery officials said.

Caption from an article by Mariana Alfaro.

[GMod]

How could they say it never happened and also say the employee "initiated the the altercation?"

[Alverant]

One fact you left out, one of the families of a fallen soldier did NOT give permission.

[luminousherbs]

“It didn’t happen, but if it did, it wasn’t our fault”

[Ash-xtej]

Getting into an altercation with any cemetery staff anywhere is wild

[OurLordandSaviorSigmar]

You finally accepted you're JD Vance.

[cookieDaXapper]

....you should NEVER use the misery of others as a prop for anything, not even to sell caskets or plots.

[realfamimation]

JD Vance using the tax-expensed bulletin board?!

[marieroberts]

Four other points:

1. The first thing the campaign tried was to not only blame the cemetery staffer for the altercation, but to call it a mental breakdown. Since the staffer is believed to be a woman, that's a twofer illegal and misogyny.

2. Everyone involved was informed of the policy at the time of the visit. But while those families are defending TFG, he is throwing them under the bus, by blaming them for releasing the tictok and other footage. He even claims he knows nothing about any policy, that he did nothing wrong and all they wanted and all he did was give them a picture.

3. The staffer is refusing to press charges, for fear of retaliation. Nuf said.

4. Families of others buried in that part of Section 60 are outraged, and they have also come forward, including family of the soldier buried next to the first family.

EDIT: THANK YOU to all who have liked and posted. Great discussion in the comments below. This is the first comment that I have made that had blown up like this, and I am honored.

[BringMeThatHorizon]

Having to defend someone taking advantage of your dead loved ones name simply for political gain is absolutely wild to me

[FunctioningAdult]

Dead soldiers are not photo ops. I don't care who gives permission.

[macherie]

My grandfather and father are both buried in the ANC, and it's possible that my father's grave was shown during this campaign ad. I'm not okay with them breaking the law and possibly showing graves of those who did not consent.

Edit: My father is in section 12 and my grandfather is in section 66. These are adjacent to session 60 where filming was done. I still believe the graves of these brave veterans and their families were greatly disrespected by this campaign stunt, even though my relatives' graves were probably not filmed.

[davidcwitkin]

Those 8 families are not the only ones who have a say. There are families with loved ones whose tombstones are in the video who said it was wrong, and there are others buried there who have families that spoke out against it, including the McCain family.

[NDracorex_]

How many times are we just gonna let this dude get away with illegal stuff?

[filmorejohnson]

You forgot to mention the U.S. Army confirmed he had his staff SHOVE an employee who was doing her job to enforce the rules. His thumbs up over the grave was so tasteless too.

[S.Grundy]

Saying, "I had the family's permission, so it's ok." Is the same as saying, "selling drugs isn't illegal because I had permission from the people I sold them to."

[vin]

I’m 99% certain those same families would be outraged if a democrat had done these things

[cleanaccount]

Donald Trump saying nothing happened is basically his motto now

[HoepRemains]

The 'JD Vance' "go to hell" was a jumpscare 😂😂😂

[josephm]

The fact that the families don’t think he did anything wrong is completely irrelevant and is simply propaganda. He broke federal law. Period. End of story.

[dadgarage]

See, Vance wants to show everyone he's a step ahead of Kamala by preemptively telling her to go to hell.