Trump Just Made Fallen Soldier’s Service About Himself. Here’s What Obama Did Instead
President Trump has left the White House and boarded Marine One on an unannounced trip that has the media buzzing. The news just broke that the trip is to visit the body of Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Ryan Owens, who was killed in Trump’s first military raid – a mismanaged and poorly executed affair that led to the brutal deaths of ten Yemeni women and children.
BREAKING: President Trump makes unannounced trip to honor the return of fallen US Navy SEAL killed in Yemen raid.
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 1, 2017
Given Donald Trump’s eye for optics and his love of publicity, it’s no surprise the news has spread like wildfire throughout social media. Trump fans are lauding him for doing his duty and honoring the fallen.
But there’s a major difference to be noted here between President Trump and his predecessor, President Obama. Former White House pool reporter and current host of NPR’s All Things Considered, Ari Shapiro, says he has accompanied President Obama on surprise trips to the Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware – but the trip was kept secret.
I was once pool reporter on an Obama unannounced trip to Dover. I asked @JayCarney why it had to be kept secret and never got an answer. https://t.co/VDaxDcDN5z
— Ari Shapiro (@arishapiro) February 1, 2017
Jay Carney was the White House Press Secretary at the time.
This is a very significant difference.
It demonstrates that President Obama bore the emotional weight of all the brave men and women that died under his command in his heart and on his shoulders. He regarded each loss as a personal failure and greeted their bodies with quiet reflection and a determination to do better.
As President Obama noted one mournful Memorial Day, “Those who rest beneath this silence not only here at Arlington but at veterans’ cemeteries across our country and around the world and all who still remain missing, they didn’t speak the loudest about their patriotism. They let their actions do that.”
Those words are particularly relevant today. President Obama didn’t want to let the world know he was going to visit our fallen soldiers, because his patriotism was genuine and heartfelt. He truly loved this country and every one of its citizens and worked as hard as he could to make their lives better.
Donald Trump wears his patriotism scrawled across his forehead and painted on his chest, wrapping himself in the flag to mask the self-serving narcissism which provides him purpose. On the campaign trail, he professed great love for our veterans, used them as a political soapbox, and then never came through with his promises.
He insulted Gold Star families as his surrogates demeaned the sacrifice of Muslim-American war heroes, mocked the suffering of American prisoners of war, and made light of the Purple Heart award. He showed no respect for our veterans on the campaign trail; how are we supposed to interpret this as anything but a hollow publicity stunt? What has he done to show us he’s changed?
While we do appreciate that Trump took the time to honor our fallen soldiers as every good American should, his failure to honor the American citizens killed during that raid betrays the truth made evident by his unconstitutional and un-American anti-Muslim ban.
Trump does not love all of his citizens.
The eight-year-old daughter of deceased terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, Nawar al-Awlaki, was summarily executed during that raid. She as an American citizen just as much as you and I are. She should have been entitled to the same respect and certainly should not have been punished for her father’s crimes.
But she had brown skin, and is now dead and forgotten.
JUST IN: Pres. Trump is making an unannounced visit to Dover AFB to honor a slain Navy SEAL https://t.co/Lw2q91XspP https://t.co/VwbtfzFnWM
— CNN (@CNN) February 1, 2017
