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Staff for the Donald Trump campaign reportedly shoved an employee at Arlington National Cemetery who was trying to stop them from filming their visit and potentially violating federal law earlier this week, reports say.
NPR reported on Wednesday that the cemetery staffer was trying to prevent the campaign from taking photos and filming at the site where U.S. soldiers are buried when Trump staff got in a verbal and physical altercation with her. The Army, in a rare statement, confirmed the incident and said that the employee was “abruptly pushed aside” by Trump aides.
That day, Trump was filming a campaign ad showing him participating in a wreath-laying ceremony. Text overlaid on the video criticizes President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, with a caption saying that it “should never have happened” — despite Trump’s support for the idea when he was in office.
The Trump campaign has been heavily criticized for using the cemetery for political purposes. The campaign distributed a photo and video of Trump next to the grave of a Green Beret, Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano, who died by suicide and whose family denied the campaign permission to film.
It is a violation of federal law to take photos and videos of the site for political purposes. The Army said that the Trump campaign was “made aware of federal laws … which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds.”
The Army also criticized the Trump campaign for attacking the employee in the press. Trump campaign officials have issued several inflammatory statements about the employee, saying that she is a “despicable individual” who was having a “mental health episode.”
The employee reportedly declined to press charges against the Trump campaign because she feared retaliation from Trump supporters, The New York Times reported. Trump has a penchant for exacting revenge on his enemies, often calling his followers to violence — and, if he were elected, he would also have an unlimited ability to abuse the law due to the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said on Wednesday that the employee’s fear of retaliation “is ridiculous and sounds like someone who has Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Trump’s vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, had brushed off criticisms on Wednesday, saying, “You’re acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a gravesite” — even though that is essentially precisely what he did.
The article from NPR detailing the altercation between Trump staff and the worker was censored on social media platform X on Thursday. Perhaps seeking to contain the fallout of the incident, the platform owned by far right billionaire Elon Musk served a warning page to those who clicked the link, saying that the link was “unsafe,” without evidence.
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