John Jefferson
Donald Trump “just doesn’t give a shit” about members of the US military, the former president’s nephew – a vocal critic of the Republican White House nominee – has said.
Fred Trump III’s latest verbal salvo against his uncle came Monday on the MSNBC show Deadline: White House as Donald Trump spent much of his Labor Day weekend trying to parry criticism over his reportedly contentious 26 August visit to Arlington national cemetery, the burial place of more than 400,000 military veterans and their eligible dependents. The US army accused members of Trump’s presidential campaign staff of pushing aside an official who told them it was forbidden to take pictures at the graves of military members who had recently died.
Trump III then discussed the episode with the MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, who said it called to mind how the elder Trump once infamously remarked that fallen military members were “suckers” and “losers”, as his former chief of staff John Kelly said. Responding to Wallace, Trump III also alluded to how his uncle would ridicule late Republican US senator John McCain for his time as a prisoner of war while fighting in Vietnam, saying it made him undeserving of being considered a military hero.
“This is a genuine hero – let’s make no mistake about it,” Trump III said of McCain. “The fact that Donald called him in essence a ‘loser’ – I don’t get it.”
Asked why some in the military might continue supporting his uncle, Trump III replied: “I have no idea.” He described giving an interview on a radio show which is broadcast to actively serving military members and telling “the truth”.
“He just doesn’t give a shit about them,” Trump III, 61, added. “He just doesn’t.
“Donald believes in Donald.”
Monday was definitely not the first time Trump, 78, has been unflatteringly portrayed by his nephew as he prepares to run against the Democratic vice-president, Kamala Harris, in November’s election.
In a memoir published in late July, Trump III recounted how his uncle had been banished to military school as a teenager and struggled to lead after rising through the cadets’ ranks. Then, at the start of his New York real estate career, he allegedly delivered a racist outburst punctuated with the N-word while looking over damage to a car of which he was fond.
Trump also purportedly counseled his nephew to let his disabled son die and then “move down” out of state, according to the memoir, titled All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way.
The former president’s campaign has denied his nephew’s recollections.
Nonetheless, Trump III on Monday reiterated his perception that his uncle believes “anyone who is disabled or anyone who he deems lesser than him is a loser”.
“That’s just the way he is,” Trump III said. “That ain’t gonna change.”
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