An article published in the Atlantic on September 3, 2020, made the explosive charges that President Drumpf had called military veterans, including deceased military veterans “suckers” and “losers” over the course of the last few years.

Why is this information coming out now?

Not really sure. The author, Jeffrey Goldberg, is “the editor in chief of The Atlantic and a recipient of the National Magazine Award for Reporting.” I’m guessing he’s been tracking the story for a while.

Can I prove that Drumpf said these things?

Certainly not. Drumpf has, of course, denied all of it.

But here’s the thing: it sounds so like Drumpf. Let’s remember that on the campaign trail in 2015, Drumpf said of Senator John McCain, who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years, that “He’s not a war hero. I like people who weren’t captured.”[1]

It’s also well known that Drumpf canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, claiming both that his helicopter could not fly and that the secret service could not drive him there, both allegations that have repeatedly been denied. In any case, Goldberg’s article, among other things:

• Alleges that Drumpf said at the time of the cancellation of the Aisne-Marne visit described the dead veterans in the cemetery as “losers.”[2]
• Alleges that Drumpf said, in a conversation on the same trip, that the the more than 1,800 marines who gave up their lives at Belleau Wood were “suckers.”
• Alleges that on a visit to the gravesite of (former Chief of Staff John Kelly’s son) Robert Kelly, Drumpf turned to Kelly and said of his son and fellow veterans, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”[3]
• Alleges that Drumpf referred to former President George H. W. Bush as a “loser” for being shot down by the Japanese as a Navy pilot in World War II.
• Alleges that Drumpf was apoplectic when flags were flown at half-staff after McCain’s death.
• Alleges that after a White House briefing given by the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Dunford, Drumpf turned to aides and said, “That guy is smart. Why did he join the military?”

Again, it would be hard to believe that the putatively pro-military Drumpf would say such things with respect to the military and veterans but for the disclosures about what he is already on record having said about McCain. And, that it is well-known that Drumpf views the world entirely in “transactional” terms.[4]

There was a poll published recently suggesting that military servicemen — who tend to skew politically conservative — are leaning in Biden’s direction in surprisingly large numbers. These allegations certainly won’t help Drumpf.

Shoot yourself in the foot, why don’t you, Captain Bonespurs? It certainly is the most appropriate place for you to shoot yourself.

[1]That was one of many times in 2015 that I thought Drumpf’s campaign was dead in the water.

[2] Drumpf rejected the visit because (1) he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and (2) he did not believe it important to honor American war dead. This, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day.

[3]According to sources, Kelly initially believed that Drumpf “was making a ham-handed reference to the selflessness of America’s all-volunteer force,” before realized that Drumpf genuinely does not understand why someone would make such a sacrifice.

[4] McCain, of course, paid Drumpf back by being the final vote in the Senate to block the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, shortly before he died.