Trump campaign staffers engage in altercation with Arlington National Cemetery official

Donald Trump was embroiled in controversy Wednesday after a report that his entourage shoved staff during a politicized visit to the United States’s most hallowed resting place for its war dead.

National Public Radio reported late Tuesday that an Arlington National Cemetery official tried to prevent the Republican’s aides from filming and photographing in a section reserved for those killed in recent wars – and where filming is banned.

Trump staffers responded by shoving and verbally abusing the employee, the report said.

Arlington National Cemetery confirmed on Wednesday there had been an “incident” at the location, after the 78-year-old Republican presidential candidate’s visit on Monday.

Accompanied by top election aides, Trump was taking part in a wreath-laying with family members of some of the 13 service members killed three years ago in Kabul during the desperate last hours of the US pull-out from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year war against the Taliban.

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Trump was invited to the ceremony by the families. He has made criticism of President Joe Biden’s handling of the final US retreat from Afghanistan a key note of his reelection campaign, arguing that he would have managed the withdrawal in the face of a sudden and complete Taliban victory better.

The withdrawal was made as part of a peace deal signed by the Trump administration with the Taliban in Doha in February 2020.

After the visit to Arlington cemetery, Trump’s campaign posted a photo of the former president standing with the relatives and giving a thumbs-up gesture.

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Arlington National Cemetery, just outside Washington, said “federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign.”

The cemetery “reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants,” it said.

Trump’s campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita issued a very different interpretation of the dispute, saying a “despicable individual” had blocked the former president’s team.

It is “a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” he said.

Trump also posted a statement on social media attributed to relatives of victims of the 2021 bombing, which said they had approved having Trump’s media team present.

The Abbey Gate suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport killed scores of local people and 13 American troops – the last US troops to die in the war.

The uproar over the Arlington incident is the latest in a long line of controversies over Trump’s relationship with the military.

While often touting his support for the armed forces, he privately mocked the war dead while president and did not want to be seen near military amputees, according to his former chief of staff.