Trump claims ‘no conflict’ in Arlington Cemetery visit despite reports of altercation

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed there was “no conflict” or “fighting” when he visited Arlington National Cemetery last week, despite multiple reports of an altercation involving Trump campaign staff at the cemetery.

Trump was at the cemetery Aug. 26 to mark the third anniversary of a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops during the evacuation of Afghanistan. Trump and his staff defied requests from cemetery officials to avoid taking photos or videos among the gravestones, with the aim of adhering to a federal law that forbids campaign activities at military cemeteries. A female cemetery worker was “abruptly pushed aside” by male Trump aides as she sought to enforce the guidelines, cemetery officials said.

In a post shared on Truth Social, Trump falsely claimed that reports of the altercation were “made up” by Vice President Kamala Harris, who had no involvement in the Republican candidate’s visit. The altercation has been confirmed by both Arlington National Cemetery – which in a statement said “there was an incident, and a report was filed” – and U.S. Army officials.

But in his post Tuesday, Trump claimed without evidence that Harris “made it all up” because she wanted to “make up for the fact” that the Biden-Harris administration pushed for what he called an “INCOMPETENT” withdrawal from Afghanistan.

While Trump denies that an altercation took place during his visit, Department of Defense officials have said a cemetery staff member sought to enforce guidelines the campaign had received not to take photos and videos near the graves of U.S. service members killed in recent years – an area known as Section 60 – because federal law prohibits election-related activities at military cemeteries.

During the incident, which was first reported by NPR, the employee tried to enforce the rules by blocking Trump’s team from bringing cameras to the graves, according to a senior defense official and another person briefed on the incident. A larger male Trump campaign aide insisted that the camera was allowed and pushed past the cemetery employee, leaving her stunned.

Trump and his campaign have been criticized for the incident.

On Tuesday, Army 1st Lt. Jimmy McCain – son of the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain – told CNN that he viewed Trump’s visit to the cemetery as a “violation.”

“It just blows me away,” the younger McCain, who has served in the military for 17 years, said. “These men and women that are laying in the ground there have no choice” of whether to be a backdrop for Trump’s political campaign.

John McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, was a U.S. Navy captain who was shot down over Vietnam and held as a prisoner of war for five and a half years. The decorated veteran served in the U.S. House and Senate for years. He died in August 2018 and is buried at the U.S. Naval Academy.

John McCain’s father, John Sidney McCain Jr., and grandfather, John Sidney McCain Sr., were U.S. Navy admirals. They are both buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

John McCain has long been one of Trump’s top targets for criticism. During the 2016 campaign, Trump said McCain was “not a war hero” because he had been captured after his plane was shot down over North Vietnam. In 2019, after McCain’s death, Trump said McCain “didn’t get the job done” for veterans and complained that he did not receive proper gratitude for McCain’s funeral.

In his interview with CNN, Jimmy McCain – who currently serves as an intelligence officer in the 158th Infantry Regiment – said that those who have “done a lot of time in their uniform” inherently understand that Arlington National Cemetery is “not about you.”

“It’s about these people who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their country,” he said. The younger McCain told CNN that, just a few weeks ago, he changed his voter registration to Democrat and plans to vote for Harris.

“It was a violation,” McCain said. “That mother, that sister, those families, see that – and it’s a painful experience.”

As The Washington Post has reported, Department of Defense officials were concerned about Trump’s visit to the cemetery because Republicans have frequently used the withdrawal from Afghanistan as a political cudgel.

While Defense officials and Arlington Cemetery leaders have said the altercation during Trump’s visit did happen, the Trump campaign has insisted that it did not.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s spokesman, said that “there was no physical altercation as described,” that the campaign was given permission to bring a photographer and that it is “prepared to release footage” to defend against “defamatory claims.”

Such footage has not yet been released, and Cheung did not immediately reply to a request for comment on this plan.

Cheung also claimed without evidence that the employee was “suffering from a mental health episode.” Defense officials have said that the employee was trying to do her job and that the claim of a mental health episode was false.

And Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita described reports of the altercation as a “100% manufactured story” and called members of the Army “hacks” while sharing a video of Trump’s visit.

In his post Tuesday, Trump said his visit to the cemetery “could not have been a nicer moment.”

Harris said this past weekend that the former president “disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.” In response, the Trump campaign posted numerous videos in which family members of some of the 13 U.S. troops killed during a suicide bombing in the 2021 evacuation of Afghanistan accused President Joe Biden and Harris of killing their children by placing them in harm’s way.