Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday condemned clashes this week at Arlington National Cemetery between Donald Trump’s campaign staff and cemetery officials.
“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected a sacred site for political propaganda purposes,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The incident reportedly occurred during a wreath-laying ceremony on Monday to honor U.S. troops killed during the withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago. NPR reported Monday that two Trump staffers “verbally abused” and pushed away officials who told them not to photograph a portion of the cemetery where recently deceased U.S. soldiers are buried.
According to a statement from cemetery officials, federal law prohibits “political campaigning or election-related activities, including photography, within the National Military Cemetery.” According to NPR, staff were told in advance that they were not allowed to take photos at the cemetery.
Days later, Trump’s campaign posted a video montage on TikTok featuring the former president attending the event and making overtly political statements, including bragging that his administration had “lost zero troops in 18 months” in Afghanistan and describing the Biden administration’s withdrawal as a “catastrophe.”
The cemetery, which is home to more than 400,000 service members, veterans and their families, is “not a place for politics,” Harris said. But she added that Trump’s actions were not surprising, given the former president’s disparaging remarks about military personnel.
“This is a man who called fallen soldiers ‘fools’ and ‘losers’ and disparaged Medal of Honor recipients,” she wrote, referencing comments the former president made in 2018 about Americans who died in World War I and others he made this month.
“There was a man who was said to have said of the dead soldiers when he visited the cemetery before, ‘I don’t understand. What good did they do?’ He was a man who understood nothing but service to himself,” Harris continued.
A Trump campaign spokesperson denied there was a physical altercation, but Arlington National Cemetery confirmed the incident happened, as did the cemetery superintendent who said the person was pushed, but declined to press charges.
Several veterans have condemned Trump’s actions, but his running mate, JD Vance, has dismissed them as “minor disagreements” that the media has blown out of proportion.
“If there’s one thing we can all agree on as Americans, it’s that our veterans, our military families, and our service members should be respected, never belittled, and treated with the utmost respect and gratitude,” Harris wrote.
“And I believe that no one who cannot discharge this simple and sacred duty should ever again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States.”
