Donald Trump ‘Fuels Fire’ After Arlington Controversy: Ex-Aide

Former President Donald Trump’s behavior following his visit to Arlington National Cemetery last week just “fuels this fire” and shows that he does not “respect” service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice, former Trump White House aide Alyssa Farah Griffin said on Tuesday.

Trump’s team has been assailed after reports circulated last week that members of his staff got into a physical altercation with Arlington National Cemetery officials after the former president’s campaign sought to film and take photographs in Section 60, the burial site of soldiers killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The incident was first reported by NPR, and U.S. Army officials said in a statement a few days later that a cemetery employee had been “abruptly pushed aside” by a member of Trump’s campaign during the former president’s visit.

The incident occurred while Trump was attending a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the 13 American soldiers killed in the August 26, 2021, bombing at the Kabul airport amid the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump was invited to attend the ceremony by some of the family members of the slain servicemen.

His campaign has maintained that there was no physical altercation during the ceremony, and Trump bashed reports of the incident as “a made up story” by the Biden administration in a post to his Truth Social account Tuesday morning.

Speaking to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Griffin criticized how Trump’s campaign has handled the incident, saying that her former boss “has just never understood service and sacrifice as it applies to the U.S. military.”

“And the other thing is, when you make a mistake, just own it,” continued Griffin, who served as Trump’s White House strategic communications director in 2020.

“If those families asked for it and he took the picture … then just own it and don’t let this be a weeks-long story that really continues to fuel this fire that you don’t respect those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our nation,” Griffin added. “But that’s classic ‘Trumpism.’ You just have to double down, you can’t admit fault, and the way that his staff has handled it is almost worse than the offense itself in some ways.”

During the visit, Trump took a photo with the family of Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, who was killed in the Kabul airport bombing. Hoover’s family reportedly gave permission to Trump’s team to take the photograph.

Newsweek has reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment on Tuesday.

Trump has faced attacks for his behavior from veterans groups and political figures like Jimmy McCain, son of late GOP Senator John McCain, who told CNN on Tuesday that he plans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

The former president said in his post to Truth Social that “there was no conflict or ‘fighting'” at the ceremony, adding, “It was a made up story by Comrade Kamala and her misinformation squad.” Trump also repeated his attacks against President Joe Biden’s administration for the “incompetent” 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling it “THE MOST EMBARRASSING DAY IN U.S. HISTORY!!”

Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung told Newsweek last week that the former president’s team had been given permission to have a private photographer on the cemetery’s grounds and said the National Arlington Cemetery employee involved in the incident was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.”

Under federal law, candidates are prohibited from political activities on cemetery grounds, according to the Army’s statement on the matter.

“Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD [Department of Defense] policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds,” the statement read. “An ANC [Arlington National Cemetery] employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside. Consistent with the decorum expected at ANC, this employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption.”

The Army said that the case is closed and there are no plans to press charges. Some members of Congress, including Democratic Representatives Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, and Tim Kaine, of Virginia, have asked the Army to release additional details of its report.

Harris wrote in a statement to X, formerly Twitter, last week that Trump had disrespected “sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.”

“If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude,” the Democratic presidential nominee added.