Given that Donald Trump violates everything and everybody, most especially women, it’s not very surprising that he and his campaign staff violated the hallowed ground of Arlington National Cemetery. Trump using the 13 fallen heroes and their grief-stricken parents to score political points is once again a new low for the former president. His behavior isn’t terribly surprising, only that he managed to find time to visit Arlington Cemetery in between posting vulgar, misogynistic jokes about his opponent, claiming babies are murdered after birth in blue states, and that schools are operating on children to change their sex.
Does anyone really believe that Trump could care less about the Americans who died in a suicide bombing at Kabul Airport in 2021? As with everything else, Trump’s motivations are purely transactional; he wanted a photo op to highlight the admittedly disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that took place under the Biden/Harris Administration. As someone who deeply regrets having been responsible for the deaths of soldiers fighting on both sides of the Civil War, I can assure you this humble spirit felt the loss of those soldiers intently—but their parents are sadly mistaken if they think Donald Trump has ever cared about their children.
As for Trump’s staff pushing a cemetery employee for simply doing her job—how inappropriate and disrespectful is that? Rather than apologize, Trump’s spokesman claimed the woman had a “mental health issue”—how insulting and uncalled for is that? Neither Trump nor his team ever admit to wrongdoing or apologize for anything. Trump fancies himself as someone who’s always right, never wrong, always an aggrieved victim, no matter how blatant and unforgiveable his transgressions.
Do Trump’s MAGA followers ever question the absurdity of this conceit? Hardly—they love it when he belittles or defies (defiles!) authority figures and institutions; that’s what many MAGAs would do if they had the power and/or the guts. These supposedly law-abiding, “patriotic” Americans are even more aggrieved than Trump; that’s what we witnessed at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, when Trump gave his followers license to act out their rage.
The Rest of America is Getting Tired of Being Pushed Around by Trump and His MAGA Followers.
Which brings us back to the cemetery employee who opted against pressing charges because she feared becoming a target of retribution from Trump’s followers. Thanks to Trump, an employee at Arlington National Cemetery must fear for her safety merely for doing her job. Putting aside January 6th, this is hardly the first time we’ve seen Trump’s MAGA mafia in action threatening his opponents. As later recalled by Republican Senator Mitt Romney, many members of Congress hesitated to impeach then President Trump because they feared for their safety and that of their family. Fear of being voted out of office is one thing, but fear of physical harm is quite another—something common in banana republics but not the US.
Part of the problem is that Attorney General Merrick Garland was too slow to prosecute the legal cases against Trump, for both election interference and mishandling classified documents. According to Garland, the usual way of prosecuting organized crime and white-collar cases is to, “follow the money” and “begin with the people on the ground and work our way up.” But in these circumstances building a case against those at the top based on what they learned from those at the bottom took way too long. Garland should have ignored Republican claims that Biden was “weaponizing” the DOJ and appointed a special prosecutor at the onset. As it now stands, with Trump’s trials pushed until well after the election, if Trump regains the presidency, Merrick Garland is likely to be among the first targets of his promised retribution.