Grotesque

Two members of Trump’s entourage were involved in a physical altercation with an employee of Arlington National Cemetery on Monday when the employee tried to prevent them from taking still photographs and videos in Section 60 where casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. Arlington Cemetery prohibits “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," according to a statement from Arlington Cemetery.

Here is the statement about the incident from Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign's spokesman: "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.”

The private photographer referred to in the Trump campaign statement was an employee of the Trump campaign. I’m looking at the photograph above taken in Section 60 at Arlington on Monday, and I can’t find any evidence of Trump acting as if the occasion was a “solemn ceremony.” It’s an obvious campaign photo op.

Trump called soldiers who gave their lives in World War II “suckers and losers” and referring to the graves at Arlington during a Memorial Day ceremony in 2017 asked his chief of staff, “What’s in it for them? I don’t get it.”

Look at Trump’s staged grin and thumb’s up. He is grotesque in his actions, and in the consistent way he dishonors the nation’s military dead. This photograph, showing Trump using the grave of a dead soldier to promote himself and his campaign for president, should be all the evidence anyone needs why he must not be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office or Arlington National Cemetery ever again.