Trump refuses to apologize for “suckers” and “losers” comments, goes on bizarre rant
On Friday, President Trump addressed the allegations in a new Atlantic report that claim he insulted dead American war veterans as “losers” and “suckers” in an appearance in the Oval Office. The president, unsurprisingly simply claimed that the allegations were “fake” and cried crocodile tears that anyone would say those kinds of things about him, seeing as “he’s done more for the military than almost anyone else.”
Asked in Oval if he needs to apologize to vets, Trump says no because "it's a fake story." He adds: "It was a terrible thing that somebody could say the kinds of things — especially to me, because I've done more for the military than almost anybody else."
— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) September 4, 2020
In between doing so, he went on a bizarre tangent in which he talked about “weapons” that are so destructive we “don’t even wanna talk about it ” and “don’t even wanna hear about it,” which we guess hints at the development of new nuclear weapons? Or something?
normal stuff pic.twitter.com/QgTsv0rqlj
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 4, 2020
Last night, a story broke from the Atlantic which alleged that Trump’s infamous cancellation of an Armistice Day visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France, which the White House said was due to heavy rain, was actually because Trump was worried his hair would get messed up and didn’t see the point of it anyway.
Four people with knowledge of the conversation told Goldberg that Trump said, “’Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.’ In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ for getting killed.”
He expressed similar sentiments when Sen. John McCain died, saying that he was a “f*cking loser.”
When McCain died, Trump told senior staff, according to three sources with direct knowledge, "We're not going to support that loser's funeral." He became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered. "What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser." https://t.co/DJIaH8zLLf
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 3, 2020
The disrespect to America’s fallen soldiers didn’t stop there; apparently, during a Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetary, Trump visited the grave of Robert Kelly, the dead son of his then chief-of-staff, Gen. John Kelly, and told him that he couldn’t understand what was “in it” for them:
“But according to sources with knowledge of this visit, Trump, while standing by Robert Kelly’s grave, turned directly to his father and said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” Kelly (who declined to comment for this story) initially believed, people close to him said, that Trump was making a ham-handed reference to the selflessness of America’s all-volunteer force. But later he came to realize that Trump simply does not understand non-transactional life choices.
“He can’t fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself,” one of Kelly’s friends, a retired four-star general, told me. “He just thinks that anyone who does anything when there’s no direct personal gain to be had is a sucker. There’s no money in serving the nation.” Kelly’s friend went on to say, “Trump can’t imagine anyone else’s pain. That’s why he would say this to the father of a fallen marine on Memorial Day in the cemetery where he’s buried.”
If this were any other president, one might think theses words were made up — but given what we know about Trump and his disrespect for the military, it’s almost certain that he said these things.
Trump is on the record having called John McCain a loser, and his utter contempt for our veterans is legendary at this point. It’s also supremely ironic for the man who used to call into the tabloids under the fake name “John Barron” complain about “anonymous sources.”
Sadly, things in this nation are so insanely polarized it’s hard to see how anyone who supports the president would believe that these highly believable allegations are true. We need James Mattis and John Kelly to come forward and confirm the story for the whole nation to see.
