A military veteran has blasted President Donald Trump for “dishonoring” servicemembers with his bonkers Memorial Day message.
Trump, who received five military deferments during the 1960s, four for academic reasons and one for bone spurs, started the national holiday by airing personal grievances, rather than issuing a heartfelt tribute to the nation’s fallen.
During a flurry of Monday morning Truth Social posts, the 79-year-old delivered a glib homage, writing, “Happy Memorial Day to all, including the Dumocrats, who disrespect our Military and all of the tremendous success that it has had over the last year. God Bless those that have made the ultimate sacrifice. I love you all! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Naveed Shah, an Army veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a director of advocacy group Common Defense, told the Daily Beast that he was offended by the message. “Trump has demonstrated over and over again that he hates the troops,” he said, before listing specific examples.
“From calling the troops who died in WWI ‘suckers and losers,’ to mocking John McCain’s 5 years as a POW, to attacking the Gold Star Khan family, all the way back to 2016 when he lied about donating to Veterans groups. He has never missed a chance to dishonor the people he was never brave enough to stand beside,” Shah explained.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump drew immediate condemnation when he dismissed Sen. John McCain’s five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Veterans groups responded with fury.
That same campaign season, Trump attacked Khizr and Ghazala Khan—the Gold Star parents of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004—after they criticized him at the Democratic National Convention.
Trump publicly questioned why Ghazala Khan had remained silent during her husband’s speech, suggesting she had not been “allowed” to speak. The backlash crossed party lines, with Republican senators and veterans organizations among those condemning the remarks.
In 2018, The Atlantic reported that Trump had privately referred to Americans killed in war as “suckers” and “losers” during a trip to France connected to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery honoring World War I dead—and had canceled a visit to the cemetery, with aides citing bad weather.
Trump denied making the comments, though former officials later publicly disputed aspects of the reporting.
Earlier, in 2016, Trump had held a fundraiser he said would benefit veterans organizations after skipping a Republican debate. Months passed before the money was fully distributed, and it took sustained press scrutiny for him to donate the remaining funds.
It comes as two veterans in their eighties take on Trump over his garish proposed arch between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial. Retired Army Special Forces officer Jon Gundersen, 81, and Navy veteran Shaun Byrnes, 83, argue the planned 250-foot triumphal arch is less a tribute to America’s 250th birthday than a monument to Trump himself.
“We know how authoritarian dictatorships work,” Gundersen told CBS News. “There’s no rule of law, there’s no consent of the governed, and there are monuments for the leaders there.”
The lawsuit claims the administration rushed the project without proper congressional approval and says the massive structure would destroy the historic sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and the Robert E. Lee Memorial. Renderings show the arch towering at more than double the height of the Lincoln Memorial.
Trump has made little effort to disguise his attachment to the project. When asked by CBS News who the arch was for, the president replied simply: “Me.”
