Former President Donald Trump’s behavior after his visit to Arlington National Cemetery last week only “fueled this fire” and showed he has no “respect” for service members who made the ultimate sacrifice, former Trump White House aide Alyssa Farah Griffin said Tuesday.
Trump’s team has come under fire after reports circulated last week that members of his staff got into a physical altercation with Arlington National Cemetery officials after the former president’s campaign sought to film and take photos at Section 60, the burial site of soldiers killed in the war in Afghanistan. and Iraq.
The incident was first reported by NPR, and US Army officials said in a statement days later that cemetery employees were “abruptly removed” by members of the Trump campaign during the former president’s visit.
The incident occurred as Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony to honor 13 American soldiers who were killed in the August 26, 2021 bombing at Kabul airport as the US withdrew from Afghanistan. Trump was invited to attend the ceremony by several family members of the slain soldiers.
His campaign has maintained that there was no physical altercation during the ceremony, and Trump dismissed reports of the incident as a “fabricated story” by the Biden administration in a post to his Truth Social account Tuesday morning.
Speaking to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Griffin criticized the Trump campaign’s handling of the incident, saying his former boss “doesn’t understand the service and sacrifice as it applies to the U.S. military.”
“And the other thing is, if you’re wrong, just own it,” said Griffin, who became the White House’s director of strategic communications in 2020.
“If the family asked for and took the picture … then just have it and don’t let this become a story for weeks that keeps fueling this fire that you don’t respect the person who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation,” added Griffin. “But that’s classic ‘Trumpism.’ You just have to double down, you can’t admit mistakes, and the way his staff handled it was almost worse than the offense in some ways.
During the visit, Trump took a photo with the family of Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, who was killed in the Kabul airport bombing. The Hoover family reportedly gave Trump’s team permission to take the photo.
Newsweek had reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment on Tuesday.
Trump has faced attacks for his behavior from groups of veterans and political figures like Jimmy McCain, the son of the late GOP Senator John McCain, who told CNN on Tuesday that he plans to choose Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
The former president said in a post to Truth Social that “there was no conflict or ‘war'” at the ceremony, adding, “This is a story made up by Comrade Kamala and her misinformation squad.” Trump also repeated his attack on President Joe Biden’s administration for its “incompetent” withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, calling it “THE WORST DAY IN US HISTORY!!”
Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said Newsweek last week that the former president’s team has been given permission to have a private photographer on the grounds of the cemetery and said the employee of National Arlington Cemetery involved in this incident “clearly suffering from an episode of mental health.”
Under federal law, candidates are prohibited from political activity on cemetery grounds, according to an Army statement on the matter.
“Participants in the August 26 ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were aware of federal law, Army regulations and DoD (Department of Defense) policy, which clearly prohibit political activity on the cemetery grounds,” the statement read. “An employee of the ANC (Arlington National Cemetery) who tried to ensure compliance with the rules was abruptly pushed aside. Consistent with the decorum expected in the ANC, this employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disturbances.
The Army said the case is closed and there are no plans to press charges. Several members of Congress, including Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin, Maryland, and Tim Kaine, Virginia, have asked the Army to release additional details about the report.
Harris wrote in a statement to X, formerly Twitter, last week that Trump does not respect “holy land, all for a political stunt.”
“If there’s one thing Americans can agree on, it’s that veterans, military families, and service members should be respected, never looked down upon, and treated with the highest respect and gratitude,” the Democratic president said. nominations are added.