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Donald Trump is criticized by a veteran of the “old guard” of Arlington Cemetery


Donald Trump is criticized by a veteran of the “old guard” of Arlington Cemetery

Charlotte Clymer, a former veteran stationed at Arlington National Cemetery, criticized Donald Trump following recent allegations that his staff had an altercation with a cemetery official earlier this week.

In a blog post Wednesday, Clymer described her experiences in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, also known as “the Old Guard,” before sharply criticizing the former president, saying that “he fails to show our military the respect it deserves.”

The 639-hectare military cemetery, one of the oldest national cemeteries, is dedicated to more than 14,000 soldiers. In Section 60, where soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan rest, an altercation is said to have broken out between Trump’s campaign team and an official.

Trump Arlington National Cemetery
President Donald Trump lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery during a ceremony on Monday. Members of Trump’s campaign team had an altercation with a cemetery official during the ceremony.


Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Two members of Trump’s campaign team had “a verbal and physical altercation” at the cemetery on Monday, NPR reported. Trump was participating in a wreath-laying ceremony marking the third anniversary of the deadly attack on American troops in Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal from the country.

The altercation occurred after a cemetery official tried to prevent Trump’s staff from filming and taking photographs in the area, which is only permitted for Arlington staff, according to the NPR report.

Steven Cheung, communications director for Trump’s campaign, said Newsweek“There was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.”

He continued: “The fact is that a private photographer was allowed onto the premises and for some reason an unnamed individual, obviously suffering from a mental disorder, decided to physically block the path of members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday evening, Cheung apparently shared a screenshot of an email related to the event with the caption: “We were granted access so a photographer could go there.”

The screenshot reads: “Only former President Trump is permitted to have an official photographer and/or videographer outside of the main media pool.” The details of the email, who sent it, when it was sent and where the photographer was able to get in are not clear from the screenshot.

Family members of five fallen soldiers wrote in a statement: “The (former) president and his team behaved with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity toward all of our soldiers.”

The statement continued: “We had given our consent for former President Trump’s official videographer and photographer to attend the event.”

In a statement Newsweek On Wednesday, Arlington National Cemetery said it “can confirm that an incident occurred and a report was filed.”

The statement also said: “Federal law prohibits political campaign or election activities at Army military cemeteries, including photographers, content creators, or others who are there for that purpose or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign. Arlington National Cemetery has affirmed this law and its prohibitions and has widely communicated them to all participants.”

The conclusion was: “To protect the identity of the person involved, no further information about the incident will be released at this time.”

In her blog post, Clymer said cemetery officials, like the man in the alleged altercation, have the “toughest job” in the cemetery.

In several paragraphs, Clymer criticized and quoted previously reported controversial comments by Trump about military personnel. For example, he said the late Senator John McCain, who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for more than five years, “was not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

Clymer wrote: “I fully admit to being partisan, but to me, none of this has anything to do with politics, because none of the Republicans or conservatives I know would dream of showing our soldiers, our veterans and their families anything other than respect and admiration.”

She continued, “This is not about favoring any party or campaign, because once you enter Arlington, you have to leave politics at the door.”

“But Donald Trump is unwilling or unable to understand that because he cannot imagine providing the greatest selfless service possible to our country … and therefore he cannot show our military the respect it deserves,” she said.

Clymer shared parts of her blog post on her X account and had received 3 million views as of Wednesday.

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