“Suckers” and “Losers”

My husband is not a sucker or a loser, he’s a hero. Back in 1969, my husband got a letter from the draft board that he was going to Vietnam. He didn’t come from a rich family and he didn’t have any congressmen or senators to pull strings for him, his father worked in the local DuPont factory and his mom was a tutor and home-maker. He enlisted in the Air Force and joined the Pararescue branch, and after serving 13 months in Vietnam, he participated in the rescue of 156 downed pilots and American servicemen out of North Vietnam and Laos. He was on the Bat21 mission, the longest and most complex search-and-rescue mission during the Vietnam War, which involved the rescue of Iceal Hambleton, a navigator shot down behind North Vietnamese lines. At the ripe old age of 21, my husband left Vietnam with two distinguished flying crosses and seven air medals. He served as a Pararescue medic during the invasion of Panama and served multiple tours during Desert Storm. He has been shot at, he’s broken bones, he’s risked his life so many times in battle that it’s a miracle he’s still here, and he went for months without seeing his children and family. He has seen his friends and comrades die, he has seen things so horrible, human suffering so great that he still has nightmares and flashbacks. My husband gave 28 years of his life to the military in service to our country and to his fellow soldiers. My husband is a hero, and for Trump to casually suggest that those in uniform who serve our country are “suckers” and “losers,” it makes my blood boil.

If you haven’t been camping in the woods or off the grid this past week, you’ve most likely seen the Atlantic article that has exposed Trump’s comments on the military. According to the article, Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers,’ the author Jeffrey Goldberg cites several sources who have documentation that Trump has repeatedly ridiculed the intelligence of service members, and even asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades (1). And that’s not all. The article also mentions a Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery in 2017, where Trump was accompanied by then secretary of homeland security John Kelly. John Kelly’s son Robert is buried in Arlington, and he was a lieutenant in the Marine Corps and was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan. According to sources, as Trump and Kelly stood before Robert’s grave, Trump turned to Kelly and said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” Sources say Kelly initially believed that Trump was making a reference to the selflessness of America’s military forces, but Kelly later realized that Trump didn’t understand, that he “simply does not understand non-transactional life choices.”

In the same article, Goldberg’s four sources say that in 2018, Trump canceled a visit to the World War I cemetery, Aisne-Marne, because he worried about the effect of the rain on his hair, and Trump reportedly commented, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” The Aisne-Marne American Cemetery is located just north of Paris, and nearly 2,300 American troops and marines were laid to rest there after perishing in the Battle of Belleau Wood. Although Bolton says in his book that the visit was canceled due to the complications of rain and helicopter travel, the Associated Press, the New York Times, the Washington Post and even Fox News corroborated Goldberg’s reporting. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer,” testified in 2018 that Trump admitted faking bone spurs to avoid serving in Vietnam and told him (Cohen), “You think I’m stupid? I wasn’t going to Vietnam.” In Mary Trump’s tell-all book, she writes that Trump, and his-then wife Ivana Trump threatened to disown Don. Jr. if he ever enlisted in the military. And let’s not forget his comments about former Senator John McCain. In 2015 interview, Trump said that he preferred veterans who weren’t captured, and after McCain passed away from cancer in 2018, Trump threw a tantrum, and waited two days to lower flags and issue a formal statement. The only reason he conceded to make a statement on John McCain’s service to his country is because veterans’ groups pressured him to. And finally, in one account, Trump told senior advisers that he didn’t understand why the US. government placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action, because those soldiers had “performed poorly and gotten caught and deserved what they got (2).” And then his attack on Gold Star father Khizr Khan during the 2016 campaign, and his call to the wife (and Democratic congresswoman) of US Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in Niger in 2017. During the phone call Trump told her that her husband “knew what he had signed up for (3).”

Of course, virtually every White House press official, past and present, has denounced the story, but let’s not forget that lying is a daily thing when it comes to the Trump administration. Lying is the central element that holds the president’s enablers and supporters together, and each time they echo his lies, they prove their unwavering loyalty to the consummate liar and con-man himself. But what disturbs me the most is Trump’s inability to understand, or to comprehend acts of selflessness or self-sacrifice. His comment to Kelly, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” is my case in point, He doesn’t get it, he just doesn’t get it. When it comes to Trump, its all about him, and no-one else. This has been illustrated throughout his life, and he hasn’t changed one bit since he was tragically voted in as president. Just read his niece’s book, testimonies by James Comey, Michael Cohen, reports from former staffers, and his ridiculous statements and lies of all of his accomplishments, and the claim that he’s a “very stable genius.” It’s no surprise that Trump thinks our veterans and troops are “losers,” he thinks he’s smarter than everyone on the planet, his narcissism knows no bounds. And as far as his treatment of veterans, his policies speak for themselves. His hiring freeze for the federal government disproportionately affected veterans. Cuts to medicaid affect 1.8 veterans, and his proposed $72 billion in cuts to Social Security Disability over the next decade would affect over 1 million veterans (4). Actions speak louder than lies, and Trump has made it no secret that he cares nothing for those who serve in the military, nor for our veterans.

Trump’s comments about our fallen heroes, our veterans and those actively serving in the military are absolutely unconscionable and disgraceful. My husband, and each and every veteran and man and woman in uniform are not “suckers” and “losers,” they are heroes, and should be treated as such.

Sources:

1. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/3/89/4/2020.

2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-said-us-soldiers-injured-and-killed-in-war-were-losers-magazine-reports/2020/09/03/6e1725cc-ee35-11ea-99a1-71343d03bc29_story.html

3. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/04/politics/donald-trump-military-the-atlantic-story/index.html

4. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/reports/2017/09/26/439661/5-ways-president-trump-congressional-republicans-betraying-veterans/