While Donald Trump's team was visiting Arlington National Cemetery on Monday for a ceremony honoring U.S. troops killed in a deadly attack in Afghanistan, members of his campaign team reportedly got into a physical altercation with a cemetery official, according to NPR.
Citing a source familiar with the incident, the website said that Arlington officials made it clear that only cemetery employees were allowed to take photos in the area known as Section 60. However, the source told NPR that two Trump campaign staffers pushed and verbally attacked a cemetery official who was trying to prevent them from entering and taking photos in the area.
In response to an inquiry about the alleged altercation, Arlington Cemetery confirmed to NPR that “there was an incident, and a report was filed.”
Cemetery officials also drew a line between grave photos that the average visitor would normally take and photos taken of “election-related activities.”
“Federal law prohibits political campaigning or election-related activities inside military national cemeteries, including photographers, content creators, or any other persons attending for the purposes of or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the statement read. “Arlington National Cemetery has reinforced this law and prohibition and shared it widely with all participants.”
Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Cheung denied that a physical altercation took place and said they were “prepared to release footage if such defamatory allegations are made.”
Cheung also alleged, without any evidence, that “a private photographer was allowed into the building, and for some reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very grand ceremony.”
Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony Monday to honor 13 U.S. troops killed in a suicide bombing at the Abe Gate at Kabul airport. The Republican presidential nominee later traveled to Michigan to address the National Guard Association and took the opportunity to criticize Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.
“Because of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan has shattered America’s credibility and respect around the world,” Trump told the crowd, which included National Guard members and their families. According to The Biden administration was adhering to the withdrawal agreement the Trump administration signed with the Taliban in 2020. In 2022, a government watchdog group said that Trump and Biden’s decisions were key factors in fueling the collapse of the Afghan military.
Trump, who has avoided military service on several occasions (as is typical for men from wealthy families), has a long history of disparaging U.S. military personnel and veterans. He recently bolstered his claim that the Presidential Medal of Freedom is better than the Medal of Honor because it involves no sacrifice.
His running mate, J.D. Vance, also targeted Harris’s running mate Tim Walz, who served two decades in the Army National Guard, over allegations that he evaded a mission in Iraq and participated in the “stolen courage garbage.” Amid the many unfounded allegations made by the Trump campaign, Vance’s accusations remain highly dubious.
