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Trump Campaign Targets Secretary of the Army in Its Latest Attack Over Arlington Scandal
As Donald Trump’s Arlington National Cemetery scandal grows deeper and deeper, his campaign co-manager and senior advisor, Chris LaCivita, is lashing out at the Secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth, after the Dept. of the Army issued a “rare” yet “stark rebuke,” as CNN reported, of the campaign’s efforts to politicize the cemetery where 400,000 service members, many of whom gave their lives for their country, are buried.
Secretary Wormuth is the first woman to become Secretary of the Army. The Trump campaign and Donald Trump himself have been attacking women recently. The cemetery official who filed a report allegedly stating they had been verbally and physically accosted is a woman. Trump himself made a sexual and sexist attack on Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic political opponent, just this morning. The Guardian described it as a “lewd” and “crudely misogynistic comment,” originally posted by another Truth Social user. On Wednesday, WIRED published a story titled, “The Trump Campaign’s Rhetoric About Women Sounds a Lot Like Andrew Tate’s.”
“As the Trump campaign overtly appeals to the manosphere, a WIRED investigation shows that the view of women espoused by alleged rapist and trafficker Andrew Tate matches perfectly with that of Trump and his allies,” the news site reported.
Chris LaCivita is a Republican strategist perhaps best-known as the architect of the manufactured and debunked “Swiftboat” smear campaign against Democratic 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry and his military record.
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On Monday, Trump and several of his top campaign aides attended a wreath-laying ceremony held by two Gold Star families whose loved ones were among the 13 service members who died three years earlier in the suicide bombing attack on Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport on Afghanistan. The Dept. of the Army, which oversees Arlington National Cemetery, had warned Trump he could attend but only as a private individual, and no campaign staffers would be allowed. It also informed him of other restrictions, in keeping with both ANC policy and federal law. It is a violation of federal law to use Arlington National Cemetery for political purposes or events.
But Trump ignored those rules and regulations, according to the Army, which defended a cemetery official who reportedly alleges Trump campaign staffers pushed her out of their way, in a physical and verbal assault as she tried to enforce the cemetery’s rules.
The Trump campaign also shot photographs and video, and released video on several social media platforms, in apparent violation of federal law.
“Arlington National Cemetery routinely hosts public wreath laying ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for individuals and groups who submit requests in advance. ANC conducts nearly 3,000 such public ceremonies a year without incident,” the Army’s statement reads, according to Talking Points Memo.
“Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside. Consistent with the decorum expected at ANC, this employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption. The incident was reported to the JBM-HH police department, but the employee subsequently decided not to press charges. Therefore, the Army considers this matter closed.”
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“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked. ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve.”
The Trump campaign on Tuesday edited its captured video from the Arlington events into a TikTok video (here), complete with music and Trump’s commentary as the narration.
On Monday, LaCivita had posted this short clip:
Arlington Cemetery…. pic.twitter.com/YRlQl131Qr
— Chris LaCivita (@LaCivitaC) August 26, 2024
On Thursday, he responded to the Army’s rebuke by reposting that video and writing: “Reposting this hoping to trigger the hacks at @SecArmy,” referring to the Secretary of the Army. He could have tagged the U.S. Army’s account, @USArmy, but instead LaCivita targeted Secretary Wormuth’s official government account.
Critics blasted LaCivita and the Trump campaign.
“The Trump campaign has spent the day beefing with the Army, Arlington National Cemetery, and firefighters,” observed journalist Mike Rothschild, an expert on conspiracy theories and has testified before Congress. “What American institutions will they beef with tomorrow? Astronauts? Kool and the Gang? Bald eagles?”
“So the ‘we love the troops’ crowd is actively trolling the U.S. Army, posting disrespectful politicization of our most hallowed national cemetery to ‘trigger’ people,” noted Daily KOS founder Markos Moulitsas. “Trump and his minions have bizarrely decided they’re on the ‘fuck the vets’ side. (And yes, I’m a vet).”
The New Republic reports, “LaCivita’s words are unlikely to help Trump’s efforts to attract more veterans to his side. The Republican presidential nominee’s anti-military rhetoric has been a point of contention with current and former service members in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the reputed Vietnam-era draft dodger came under fire for arguing that the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to one of his billionaire donors was ‘much better’ than the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor. That comment struck a nerve with veterans, who connected Trump’s disrespectful rhetoric to a 2020 Atlantic report that caught the former president repeatedly referring to fallen soldiers as ‘suckers and losers.'”
Watch the video above or at this link.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
