Donald Trump likes to pretend he is still president — but his act caught up with him at Arlington | Salon.com
By: Heather Digby Parton
breaking federal laws and desecrating cemeteries means nothing to the trump campaign...
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Over the weekend Donald Trump whined that the Harris campaign was treating him like the incumbent and it's totally not fair:
The fact is that they are framing some of the campaign as a referendum on Trump. And why wouldn't they? The former president is running on the lies about the alleged halcyon days when America was great (2017 -2019) and the vice president is running on "a new way forward" and "we're not going back." If he doesn't want to be seen as the incumbent maybe he should stop pretending he is one.
If he didn't want people to think of him as the incumbent maybe he shouldn't have acted like he was for the past four years.
From the moment Trump glumly flew off to Mar-a-Lago on January 20, 2021, he's been acting like a president in exile. He flies around on a plane he calls "Trump Force One" and uses an ersatz presidential seal at any podium he stands behind. He insists on being called "Mr. President" (never "former") and everyone around him treats him as if he still is. He's been running a shadow government, with GOP officials rushing to get his permission before they take any action and everyone clamoring for his dispensation in their campaigns. One of the most obvious examples of his power over the GOP was his thumbs down on the painfully negotiated bipartisan border bill. He didn't even pretend that it had anything to do with the policy, he just didn't want Biden to be able to run on it as one of his accomplishments. He essentially vetoed the bill from his Gilded White House in Florida.
And he routinely meets with foreign leaders at his beach club as if they are there for an important state occasion. The events are small and somewhat tawdry (more like people dropping by to see the Duke of Windsor and Wallace Simpson back in the day) but he's managed to persuade a number of his foreign allies to kiss the ring on the chance that he'll be back in power soon and will deliver for them.
It's not usual for presidential candidates to take a foreign trip to demonstrate that they can be presidential on the world stage. (Recall former Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker's disastrous trip abroad just before he imploded in the 2016 presidential race.) But having foreign dignitaries come to the U.S. and pay homage to Trump at his Florida resort, as if they are supplicants, is something else altogether. Here's some footage of a visit from Hungarian President Viktor Orban last spring.
Trump recently met with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and staged a fake summit in what appears to be the Mar-a-Lago dining room:
He's reportedly been talking to his pal Netanyahu in recent days discussing the situation in Gaza. I think it's fair to assume that he may be exhorting him not to agree to a ceasefire or hostage deal in order to ensure Harris doesn't benefit from any agreements before the election. After all, as we saw with the border bill veto, that's his M.O.
And then there is the fact that he claims he is the rightful president having supposedly won the 2020 election. Millions of his followers believe that he won that campaign and that he should be sitting in the White House today — maybe forever. There are even people interviewed at his rallies who think he actually is the current president, pulling the strings from behind the curtain.
This week he performed one of the most audacious presidential acting jobs I've seen him do since he went into exile. In fact, when I first saw the footage I thought it must be from when he was in office:
He is not a real president yet he used Arlington National Cemetery this week as a campaign prop to hit his political opponent for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. It later turned out that he was also taking smiling thumbs-up souvenir pics with unauthorized personnel, as NPR reported:
A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.
When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.
Trump's crude spokesman Steven Cheung said it didn't happen and accused the official of mental illness. Trump's campaign manager Chris LaCivita called the official a "disgrace." Officials at Arlington told NPR that they've filed a report with local authorities.
This is, of course, just the latest in a long line of Trump's insults to the military. For someone who loves the idea of being commander in chief, he sure doesn't have a high regard for the people who gave their lives in war. (Yes, "suckers and losers".) It's something I've always found a little bit mystifying. He loves cops. He loves uniforms. But he has absolutely no respect for service members, especially the brass. It's odd considering that they are required to salute smartly and follow orders. You'd think he'd love that. But I suppose the fact that he issued so many illegal and maniacal orders that they had to object makes him angry.
There are exceptions, of course. The cracked former General Michael Flynn, the disgraced former Admiral Ronny Jackson and certain war criminals he pardoned and invited down to his resort. But for the most part, Trump was always uncomfortable around the military, maybe because it's not in their nature to sycophantically tell him what he wants to hear. Even when he's play-acting, as he was on Monday at Arlington, he can't seem to get it right.
Trump has spent the last four years pretending to still be the president and continuing to dominate our political culture even though he's really just some rich guy who lives in Palm Beach and likes to run for president. If he didn't want people to think of him as the incumbent maybe he shouldn't have acted like he was for the past four years.
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US service men and women that have made the ultimate sacrifice are now nothing more than campaign props to a traitorous felon in his quest to avoid prosecution for his crimes against the american people...
And that pisses me off
we need a bare concrete wall just outside the entrance to arlington for traitorous americans...
It should piss everyone off.
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What's not to believe about the truth??????????????????????????????
It has been reported by other sources. Of course you don't want to believe it, but that doesn't render it untrue or improve Trump's character
Disgusting, deplorable, despicable - a whole 'article' devoted to the traitor turd's 'Remembrance' of him pissing all over these soldiers' graves. I saw a post that of course this is not allowed at Arlington - desecration of these honorable men and women by filming and taking photos and how the traitor turd pushed aside staff at Arlington who told him this was not allowed.
And the people who call themselves patriots see nothing wrong with trmp using Arlington as a campaign stop
Trump abused Arlington and dead heros playing a stupid MAGA game of gotcha!
It blew up in their stupid MAGA faces...
maga is the opposite of the word patriot...
He's not 'president' now and on that other 'article' no one would answer the question - why is the former 'president' convicted felon and rapist even here?
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Just want to be clear that ANY American citizen has the absolute right to express their opinion about ANYTHING at ANY TIME. Of course, anyone who served in the military would recognize that they served to protect that sacred right.
anyone that took an oath to defend the constitution, wore a uniform, and then still supports trump after J6 have given up their right to being held with any degree of respect as a patriot, let alone as an american in my eyes ...
I'm tired of those who served who say those who didn't serve have no voice in the matter. My opinion matters just as much as theirs if not more when it comes to those who dev mentions above - those that still support him after his incitement of an insurrection and all the other schemes surrounding it such as the fake electors.
no surprise those that don't know what they're fighting for probably wouldn't know who they're fighting for either ...
Psychological evaluations don't catch all the crazies who volunteer for the military.
Unfortunately, there are actually no psychological evaluations in place for politicians.
Read a sci-fi book once where all candidates for public office had to study and test for all positions from dog catcher to president and were then chosen by a supercomputer. Seems to be a much more preferable way to go about it than the current popularity contest of democracy.
back in our day, anyone that willingly joined, their sanity was suspect...
That trump 'official' needs to be arrested for assault.
Trump's campaign officials are low-life scumbags.
Whatever the penalty is for violating the rules, Trump should be made to pay it.
Bunch of thugs scumbags
Arlington National Cemetery says they are not going to comment anymore on this matter out of concern for the privacy (aka safety) of its employee who was involved in the incident. In other words they dont want her to be subjected to death threats.
ANC has provided the Dept of the Army an incident report. Any additional information will be at the discretion of the SecArmy.
Note that we'll never see a retraction from the 'Remembrance' folks that this was a staged event by the former 'president' convicted felon and rapist who will see no consequences for this desecration and ignorance and lies, like wise with that other 'article', no truth to be found.
The most hallowed ground in America and scum and his followers pull this.
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And now, a heaping plate full of truth about this incident. Biden and Harris have pretty much ignored the relatives of the victims.[✘]
that article explains nothing about the incident.
if trump had footage showing the cemetery employee was at fault he would have shown it already.
The families say they gave permission for Trump's videographer and photographer to be there; that's all well and good
but they do not
repeat,
DO NOT SUPERSEDE FEDERAL LAW, particularly laws specifically about ANC.
which is clearly posted throughout the cemetery and is made clear to the participants of any ceremonial events.
This is just the former President Trump pretending that he is POTUS for Life (sic) and that rules don't apply to him
and what are you going to do about it now, typical bully shit.
They had to coin a new word for the king of the maga and his cult members - agnorant
Such ignorant arrogance
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There are other families saying they did not give Trump permission to photograph their relatives' graves.
And to make matters worse, another maga cult politician used the photos in a fund raising appeal.
maga lost the patriotism high ground on J6...
The scum call themselves the party of law and order and break the law constantly and some members here are talking of a two tiered justice system when it comes to Democrats.
Scumbag trump broke the law at Arlington.
any vets that vote for trump deserve his disrespect...
He pissed all over those honorable men and women's graves.
That wussy vance told Kamala to go to hell for not defending the former 'president's' convicted felon and rapists' photo-op and desecration of those honorable men and women. This was a 'campaign' stop and photo-op and illegal and the gop cheer him on.
Kamala is doing the right thing by letting these fucking morons to keep on talking and lying and
Now they are confirming that the ANC laid out the ground rules and the times available several times for the family doing the organizing and they had to involve their Congressman ( who only got one side of the story )
He couldn't help so he went to Mike Johnson who encouraged the ANC to move their schedule around to accommodate Trump's timetable.
The ANC knew the probability that this was going to become politicized.
Sec Army says the book is closed because the ANC official declined to press charges.
( I didn't know violating Federal laws had options )
Hopefully the next jack ass that tries this will have to deal with a uniformed member of "The Old Guard",
US 3rd Infantry, or Company B, USMC Barracks.
Prosecutors always have options.
That Utah politician has already apologized and blamed someone else for the "oversight".
The party of responsibility
That would be most enjoyable.
I was reading somewhere that The Sentinel's actually have live ammo they are allowed to chamber
if the fixed bayonet doesn't get someone's attention about maintaining absolute silence around the Tomb.
wtf? what's the point of all the military pomp and circumstance with an empty weapon?
There's a black and white film of a war protester who steps beyond the ropes and starts shouting his beliefs;
The closest Sentinel took one step, lowered the bayonet to a threatening position and since the protester wasn't heeding the other guards' instructions, deftly chambered one round with his left hand and the sound created instant silence.
The protester was led away very quietly.
... hard to imagine any worse place on earth to show any disrespect to service members doing their jobs.
... shortly after his no jury would convict epiphany.