Despite presenting himself as a champion of the U.S. military, and earning a majority of votes from veterans in all three of his campaigns for the White House according to polls, President Donald Trump has occasionally made controversial remarks about veterans, members of the military or America's involvement in overseas conflicts. Some of these statements were made on camera or in front of reporters, but others come from anonymous sources. Trump himself never served in the military, receiving an exemption during the Vietnam War after being diagnosed with bone spurs in his heels.
The most incendiary report about Trump's running commentary on the military was a September 3, 2020, investigation in The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg, including shocking second-hand reports about Trump's conduct from former advisors, including retired general and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Trump forcefully denied the veracity of Goldberg's reporting. "It is a disgraceful situation by a magazine that's a terrible magazine," said Trump to reporters. The Atlantic stood by its reporting. "I wouldn't publish anything that I didn't feel was sourced to the highest degree possible," said Goldberg in an interview with NPR.
On trans Americans serving in the US military
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On US military officials
On the burial of US Army private Vanessa Guillén
On the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for five and a half years
On lowering flags to half-mast after McCain's death
On recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor
On not serving in the Vietnam War
On concocting a fake injury to avoid service in Vietnam
On how his sexual promiscuity makes him braver than any soldier who served in Vietnam
On troops wounded in an Iranian retaliatory strike on a US airbase in Iraq
On fallen soldiers at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery
On the 1,800 US Marines who died at Belleau Wood in France during World War I
On US soldiers in World War I
On disabled veterans
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