BFF-03 Trump called US Marines killed in WWI battle ‘losers’: report

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BFF-03

US-POLITICS-VETERANS-TRUMP-WWI

Trump called US Marines killed in WWI battle ‘losers’: report

WASHINGTON, Sept 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump referred to
US Marines buried in a WWI cemetery in France as “losers” and “suckers” for
getting killed in action, according to a report Thursday in the Atlantic
magazine.

The report, penned by the magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, said
Trump had refused to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in
2018 because “he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain,”
although the official explanation offered by aides was that the helicopter
due to take him there could not fly due to weather.

“In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the
scheduled visit, Trump said, ‘Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled
with losers,'” the article said.

“In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more
than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ for
getting killed,” the Atlantic added, citing four unnamed people it said had
firsthand knowledge of the discussions.

Trump and his team slammed the report.

The president refuted the article “in very emphatic terms,” chief of staff
Mark Meadows told reporters. “He was more offended by them.”

White House communications director Alyssa Farah said on Twitter that the
allegations were “offensive & patently false,” while Trump campaign press
secretary Hogan Gidley called them “disgusting, grotesque, reprehensible
lies.”

“I was there in Paris and the President never said those things… These
weak, pathetic, cowardly background ‘sources’ do not have the courage or
decency to put their names to these false accusations because they know how
completely ludicrous they are,” Gidley said in a statement.

However, some critics pointed to Trump’s denigrating comments about late
senator John McCain, who was captured in Vietnam and was widely regarded as a
war hero.

Trump said in the run-up to the 2016 election: “He’s not a war hero. He was
a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

Around 1,800 US Marines died in the battle at Belleau Wood, holding off a
German advance toward Paris in 1918.

According to the Atlantic, Trump asked aides on his trip to France, “Who
were the good guys in this war?” and could not understand why the United
States had come to the aid of the Allies.

Joe Biden, Trump’s rival in the November 3 election, said in a statement
that if the article’s allegations are true, “then they are yet another marker
of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the President
of the United States.

“If I have the honor of serving as the next commander in chief, I will
ensure that our American heroes know that I will have their back and honor
their sacrifice — always,” Biden said.

BSS/AFP/GMR/0855 hrs