The US Army on Thursday took aim at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s staff for visiting the resting place of the country’s most hallowed war dead.
The incident has spiraled into an unexpected public spat between the military and the former US commander in chief, with Trump accusing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of “killing” American troops in Afghanistan through “gross incompetence.”
Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington with family members of some of the 13 service members killed in a 2021 bombing during the final hours of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
His campaign posted photos of the visit, including one showing him standing with relatives at the grave of one of the slain U.S. Marines and giving a thumbs-up.
The Army said an Arlington employee was “abruptly removed” after she sought to ensure that a law prohibiting political activity on the cemetery grounds was followed.
“This incident was unfortunate, and it is even more unfortunate that an (Arlington National Cemetery) employee and his or her professionalism was unjustly attacked,” an Army spokesman said in a statement.
Taking an aggressive stance, Trump campaign co-manager Chris Lacivita described the staffer as a “disgusting individual,” while campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said she was “clearly suffering from a mental health issue.”
Lacivita later reposted a video of Trump’s appearance at Arlington and said she hoped it would “start a hacking spree” at the U.S. Army secretary’s office.
Trump has made criticism of Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan a central issue in his campaign ahead of the November election.
The US withdrawal was made as part of a peace deal signed by the Trump administration with the Taliban.
At a rally in Michigan on Thursday, Trump defended his gravesite visit and took aim at his 2024 White House rivals Biden and Harris over Afghanistan.
“They asked me to go to Arlington yesterday and I did,” Trump said of the families, adding that “bad people” have accused him of improper political activity.
“Joe Biden killed their children because of his incompetence … Kamala killed their children because of her gross incompetence — like she had a gun in her hand,” Trump told supporters.
“Not a single general or incompetent bureaucrat was fired for the disastrous retreat,” he said. “And then they accused me of posing for a picture at the grave with the family.”
The uproar over Monday’s event at Arlington is the latest controversy in Trump’s tumultuous relationship with the military.
According to his former chief of staff, he often proclaimed his support for the armed forces, but when he was president, he privately mocked war dead and did not want to be seen near military invalids.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)