Trump Campaign Under Fire for Arlington Cemetery Photo Op

For American politicians, photo ops are a significant part of their campaigning efforts. Former President and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump is no stranger to them, but one on Monday, August 26, at Arlington National Cemetery’s Section 60 has proved especially controversial.

While Trump participated in a traditional wreath-laying ceremony to honor fallen soldiers interred at the historic cemetery, two of his campaign staff were involved in an alleged incident with a cemetery official. According to detailed reporting by NPR, the altercation was both verbal and physical, a characterization that Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung says is inaccurate.

Trump was on hand for an event marking the third anniversary of an attack on American soldiers in Afghanistan during the widely panned U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2020 and 2021. 13 service members were killed in action during the chaotic final days of the withdrawal mission. More than 150 Afghans were also killed in the chaos. A 2023 U.S. State Department report criticized both the Trump and Biden administration for the withdrawal’s shortcomings. Trump has spent considerable time criticizing the way his successor handled the withdrawal, blaming Biden — and Harris — for the deaths of the 13 soldiers.

A source claims that the cemetery official “tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried,” per NPR. The source says that Arlington National Cemetery officials had made it clear to Trump’s campaign that only cemetery staff were allowed to take photos or record video in Section 60. It’s a relatively new, and highly restricted, area in the southeast part of the cemetery where military personnel killed in the “war on terror” since 2001 can be placed to rest.

Trump’s team claims they did nothing wrong and that the cemetery official involved has a mental issue.

“We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Cheung told NPR in a statement. “The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”

Arlington National Cemetery has said there was an incident and a report was filed.

“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 says.

“Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”

Trump is not the first President to be photographed in Section 60. Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama visited the site on September 10, 2011, for example. It’s not Trump’s first visit to Section 60, either, as he visited while President in December 2018. The photos of the Obamas and the one of Trump while he was the President are in stark contrast to the one floating around now, which show a smiling Trump giving a thumbs up to a camera. Further, the prior photos were taken when a sitting President was at Arlington in their official capacity, not on the campaign trail.

“… No person or party [on] either side should ever use Arlington National Cemetery or any of our cemeteries or battlefields for partisan political purposes,” former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper said of the incident on CNN. Esper says the incident “should be investigated.”

Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita has also weighed in on the incident, saying that a “despicable individual” — presumably the cemetery official — prevented Trump’s team from accompanying the Presidential nominee to the event.

“For a despicable individual to physically prevent President Trump’s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” LaCivita, who served in the United States Marine Corps from 1989-1991, says in a statement.

“Whoever this individual is spreading these lies are dishonoring the men and women of our armed forces, and they are disrespecting everyone who paid the price for defending our country.”

LaCivita told NBC News that a “nameless bureaucrat at Arlington whose job it is to preserve the dignity of the cemetery is doing the complete opposite in trying to make what was a very solemn and respectful event into something it was not.”

So far, the Trump campaign has declined to share the referenced exonerating footage. Cheung maintains that the Trump campaign was “granted access to have a photographer there.”

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.