Trump: I Didn't Call US War Dead 'Suckers'

'I never said that about our fallen heroes'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 4, 2020 6:09 AM CDT
Updated Sep 4, 2020 6:42 AM CDT
Trump Denies Calling Americans Who Died in War 'Losers'
President Trump talks with reporters at Andrews Air Force Base after attending a campaign rally in Latrobe, Pa., Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Trump has angrily denied a report that he called Americans who died in war "losers and suckers." The report in the Atlantic, citing "four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion," said Trump skipped a visit to a US war cemetery in France in 2018 because he didn't want the rain to mess up his hair and he didn't want to go to a graveyard "filled with losers." The sources said Trump separately described the 1,811 Marines killed in the World War I battle of Belleau Wood as "suckers." Trump said Thursday night that if the sources even exist, they are "lowlifes and liars," the New York Times reports. "I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes," he said. "There is nobody that respects them more. What animal would say such a thing?"

In a tweet, Trump also denied the Atlantic's report that after Sen. John McCain's death in 2018, he told aides, "We're not going to support that loser's funeral" and was outraged when he saw flags at half-staff. Trump called the report "made up Fake News given by disgusting & jealous failures." Joe Biden, meanwhile, said that if the article is true, it is "another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the president of the United States." The Atlantic's sources also said that during a 2018 meeting to plan a military parade Trump asked for wounded veterans to be excluded so that people wouldn't have to look at amputees, saying, "Nobody wants to see that." (More President Trump stories.)

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