Dear US Military: This Is What Your Commander-In-Chief Really Thinks Of You

It's not just John McCain. It's all troops.

Hey, remember that time in 2018 when Trump was supposed to go to the WWI veterans cemetery in France, but he whined on Twitter that he couldn't go because the Secret Service refused to take him by helicopter or by car? Remember how everybody knew it was because he was a fucking baby who didn't want to get his ugly hair wet? Remember how he also usually can't be bothered to visit the Arlington National Cemetery, five seconds from his house, to lay a fucking wreath on Veterans Day?

Boy oh boy, does Jeffrey Goldberg have a story for you in The Atlantic . If you've ever sworn an oath to protect America in its military, or if your son or daughter swore that oath, you're going to need to read this:

Trump rejected the idea of the visit [ to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Paris in 2018 ] because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day.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." 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.

It's not just John McCain, you guys. It's not just Khizr and Ghazala Khan, who lost their son Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan in Iraq and who spoke at the 2016 (and 2020) Democratic National Convention. It's all troops.

Makes us wonder if he thinks American troops who get murdered in Afghanistan because Vladimir Putin bought their heads from Taliban fighters are also "losers" and "suckers." Oh wait, did we say makes us wonder ? We meant makes us assume . (He also reportedly thinks people who are merely wounded in war are "suckers.")

Goldberg tells the story of Belleau Wood in 1918 during World War I, where the US Marines stopped the Germans in their tracks on the way to Paris — if you are a Marine, Belleau Wood is legendary — and reports further:

Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, "Who were the good guys in this war?" He also said that he didn't understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies.

Different war, but we are pretty sure we know which side Trump would have been on in 1939, too.

Y'all, we are two fuckin' paragraphs into Goldberg's piece.

Back to John McCain, though, here's more of what Trump says about McCain, and specifically about McCain's military service , behind closed doors, when he thinks nobody can hear him:

When McCain died, in August 2018, Trump told his senior staff, according to three sources with direct knowledge of this event, "We're not going to support that loser's funeral," and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. "What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser," the president told aides.

Is it OK if we just keep copy/pasting? Because we don't know how to spell the pit in our stomach right now.

Trump's understanding of heroism has not evolved since he became president. According to sources with knowledge of the president's views,he seems to genuinely not understand why Americans treat former prisoners of war with respect. Nor does he understand why pilots who are shot down in combat are honored by the military.On at least two occasions since becoming president, according to three sources with direct knowledge of his views, Trump 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.

It's not just John McCain and Humayun Khan and the troops Putin pays to murder. It's also George H.W. Bush. And all the rest of the troops, it seems.

Goldberg discusses how, on top of just being a fucking monster in general, Trump literally doesn't understand why people would volunteer to join the military, which jibes with something in Mary Trump's book about Trump threatening to disown Don Jr. if he joined the military.

He also tells the story of Trump going to Arlington National Cemetery with then-Department of Homeland Security secretary John Kelly on Memorial Day 2017. There, Kelly's son Robert, who was killed in Afghanistan, is buried. Trump, at Robert Kelly's grave , said, to Robert Kelly's father , "I don't get it. What was in it for them?" Goldberg reports that at first Kelly thought Trump was just awkwardly expressing a nice sentiment about how those guys gave up everything, including their lives. That is not what Trump was expressing.

"He can't fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself," one of Kelly's friends, a retired four-star general, told me. "He just thinks that anyone who does anything when there's no direct personal gain to be had is a sucker. There's no money in serving the nation." Kelly's friend went on to say, "Trump can't imagine anyone else's pain. That's why he would say this to the father of a fallen marine on Memorial Day in the cemetery where he's buried."

Donald Trump is unrecognizable to us as a human being. He's something ... different.

Goldberg has sources who think Trump is like this because he doesn't understand that the military's allegiance is to the Constitution and not him personally. (Fascist.) Some think it's that greedy selfish worldview that doesn't get why anybody would do anything for anyone else. (Sociopath.) He also appears to think that people in the military are stupid. (Who the fuck is this asshole to call somebody else stupid? )

Here is a thing Trump said about the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:

According to eyewitnesses, after a White House briefing given by the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Dunford, Trump turned to aides and said, "That guy is smart. Why did he join the military?"

Another possibility Goldberg's military sources cites is that President Bone Spurs is such a sniveling crying chickenshit, and that's why he's like this:

"He has a lot of fear," one officer with firsthand knowledge of Trump's views said. "He doesn't see the heroism in fighting." Several observers told me that Trump is deeply anxious about dying or being disfigured, and this worry manifests itself as disgust for those who have suffered.

Hey, US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and all their parents — you voting for Joe Biden yet? Because Biden's late son Beau was an Iraq War veteran. He understands. Unlike this sad excuse for a human.

Maybe this will help. Because you all know how Trump loves a military parade. According to Stephanie Winston Wolkoff's new book, for his inauguration parade, he wanted them to "make it look like North Korea." But there's one thing Trump did not want at his military parade. Something he thinks is gross .

In a 2018 White House planning meeting for [a military parade], Trumpasked his staff not to include wounded veterans, on grounds that spectators would feel uncomfortable in the presence of amputees. "Nobody wants to see that," he said.

Well then.

The Trump campaign and White House spent pretty much the entire night freaking out about this story and issuing panicked denials, and they're on the internet if you want to read them. Hint: Two of their very credible people refuting the story are Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Stephen Miller. The others aren't any more believable. They also say some emails from the Navy about the weather PROVE that Trump couldn't possibly have been freaking out about his dumbass hair or shitting on WWI dead that day in France. We are sure we'll have a whole post later about how hilariously bad their denials were, and just how many bricks they shit. That is also on the internet, assuming you were to give a fuck about denials from the Trump administration .

However, if anybody is skeptical about any of this, first of all this is Jeffrey Goldberg and this is The Atlantic. These are not lazy reporters. But AP military reporter James LaPorta confirmed the story within an hour. So there's that. The Washington Post also got its own reporting on it, with some stories Goldberg didn't get:   

A former senior administration official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, confirmed to The Washington Post that the president frequently made disparaging comments about veterans and soldiers missing in action, referring to them at times as "losers."

In one account, the president told senior advisers that he didn't understand why the U.S. government placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action because they had performed poorly and gotten caught and deserved what they got, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

Trump believed people who served in the Vietnam War must be "losers" because they hadn't gotten out of it, according to a person familiar with the comments.

We're sure by the time this story appears in the print edition of Wonkette, there will be more confirmations.

This is who Donald Trump is. Can we go vote now?

[ The Atlantic / Washington Post ]

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