Trump Still Shows No Respect For Military Service

The following post is by Robert Reich:

What might otherwise be considered a minor error of judgment can blow up into a big issue in a political campaign when the error evokes a candidate’s deeper flaws. 

Yesterday, the U.S. Army issued a stern rebuke to the Trump campaign over his visit on Monday to the Arlington National Cemetery, where Trump sought to score political points by marking the third anniversary of a deadly attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan as American forces withdrew from the country. Thirteen American service members were killed in the attack at Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate.

A video of the visit posted by the Trump campaign on TikTok shows Trump visiting grave sites, with audio of him blasting Biden’s “disaster” of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

The Army said in its statement that participants in the ceremony “were made aware of federal laws” which “clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds.” The statement also noted that an Arlington National Cemetery official “who attempted to ensure adherence” to these rules “was abruptly pushed aside.”

 

Reportedly, when the cemetery official — a woman — tried to prevent Trump and his staff from entering the prohibited area, Trump’s staff verbally abused her and pushed her out of the way so Trump could enter. 

The Army statement went on to say: “It is 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 incident has blown up into a big issue, but not because the Trump campaign erroneously held a political event at the Arlington National Cemetery. 

It’s blown up because it’s a microcosm of Donald Trump’s moral squalor.

 

Trump has repeatedly shown contempt for military heroism. He claimed that the late John McCain, who had been a prisoner of war, was “not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” 

When General Mark Milley invited a wounded, wheelchair-bound soldier to sing “God Bless America” at Milley’s welcoming ceremony as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump admonished him, “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded.”

On a trip to France in 2018, Trump refused to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, where more than 2,200 U.S. service members are buried. “Why should I go to that cemetery?” he asked staff members. “It’s filled with losers.”

 

According to Trump’s then-chief of staff John Kelly, Trump called the Marines who died at Belleau Wood “suckers” for getting killed.

Trump recently said that the Congressional Medal of Freedom he’d awarded to Republican donor Miriam Adelson was “much better” than the Medal of Honorbecause Medal of Honor recipients are “either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they are dead.”

It’s not only Trump’s disdain for military heroism that’s brought to mind by what happened at Arlington National Cemetery. It’s also Trump’s disdain for the law, suggesting other occasions when Trump and his henchmen have disregarded legal rules, including their attempt to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election. 

Verbally abusing and pushing the cemetery employee who was trying to enforce the law, after she notified Trump and his staff that it was illegal to stage political events at the ceremony, recalls other instances when Trump and gang have pushed people aside, using violence to try to get their way. Think January 6, 2021. 

That the employee in question is a woman brings to mind the multitude of ways Trump has employed violence against women, from grabbing their genitals to raping them to stirring up his followers to threaten them. She declined to press charges because, according to military officials, she feared retaliation by Trump supporters. 

The entire incident is also a microcosm of Trump’s utter disdain for morality, honor, and patriotism — the public virtues, the common good. The cemetery is a sacred, hallowed ground. It is considered to be a national shrine. Trump sullied it to achieve his personal goal of the moment: to get a news clip in which he could bash Biden and, indirectly, Kamala Harris. 

The incident rings the warning bells, rekindles the dark memories, revives the fears. 

What happened at Arlington National Cemetery earlier this week was much more than an erroneous photo op. It was Trump on full display.

8 Charts Showing Trump's Damage To U.S. Reputation

 

The charts above are from the Pew Research Center. This Summer, they questioned residents of 13 developed nations (Canada, France, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, South Korea, Japan, and Australia). These nations have been considered allies of the United States, and in the past, they have respected this country.

Donald Trump has changed that. The favorable view of the United States has plunged in all those countries, and in all but one (South Korea), the favorable view has dropped below 50%. 

And the view of Trump has dropped even further. He is the least respected leader of the major nations -- finishing behind both Putin (Russia) and Xi (China).

These countries also view the United States as having done the worst job in controlling the Coronavirus.

Trump Doesn't Honor Our Troops - Thinks They Are "Losers"

 

Donald Trump has bragged that he is the president who "saved" our military. That is not even close to the truth. 

The truth is that he doesn't respect our military at all. He just knows that the American people do, so he uses them to get what he wants. Our military is nothing more than a political prop for Trump.

He doesn't respect them at all. In fact, he considers those who served in our military to be "losers". 

Jeffrey Goldberg has written an excellent article in The Atlantic that exposes Trump's true feelings about the men and women who serve in our military. Trump has denied he doesn't respect the military, but the AP has found Defense officials that verify the story in The Atlantic. I urge you to read the article. The quotes below are just a tiny part of it.

When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.

Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed. . . .

Trump remained fixated on McCain, one of the few prominent Republicans to continue criticizing him after he won the nomination. When McCain died, in August 2018, Trump told his senior staff, according to three sources with direct knowledge of this event, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser,” the president told aides. . . .

On at least two occasions since becoming president, according to three sources with direct knowledge of his views, Trump referred to former President George H. W. Bush as a “loser” for being shot down by the Japanese as a Navy pilot in World War II. . . .

The president believes that nothing is worth doing without the promise of monetary payback, and that talented people who don’t pursue riches are “losers.” (According to eyewitnesses, after a White House briefing given by the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Dunford, Trump turned to aides and said, “That guy is smart. Why did he join the military?”). . . .

Trump has been, for the duration of his presidency, fixated on staging military parades, but only of a certain sort. In a 2018 White House planning meeting for such an event, Trump asked his staff not to include wounded veterans, on grounds that spectators would feel uncomfortable in the presence of amputees. “Nobody wants to see that,” he said.

The World Is Shocked At America's Failure

Donald Trump will tell you that he has restored America's greatness, and that the world respects us more than ever in the past. That is not even close to the truth.

The rest of the world has been shocked at the current failure of leadership from the United States. They believe Trump has made the world a more dangerous place.

Here's part of how Paul Waldman puts it in The Washington Post:

It’s remarkable to think that for all the damage President Trump had done to America’s image in the world before the beginning of this year, he could wound it even further. But has he ever.

As The Post’s Rick Noack reports, people in other countries are simply gob smacked at what a terrible job the United States is doing in controlling the novel coronavirus pandemic. . . .

Trump likes to say that after he was elected, respect for the United States was restored, but the truth is precisely the opposite. Even before the pandemic, Trump couldn’t have done more to degrade America’s standing than if that was his explicit goal. Not even George W. Bush, whose disastrous invasion of Iraq drew condemnation across the globe, did as much to undermine our image abroad.

Just the fact that the United States would elect such a vulgar, ignorant, corrupt buffoon was bad enough. But now our government’s incompetence is helping cause the bodies to pile up — and, it would be reasonable for other countries to worry, potentially affecting their own efforts to contain the virus. While international travel has been drastically reduced, it won’t be shut down forever. If you were watching what’s happening in the U.S. — where we have 2.2 million cases of covid-19 and almost 120,000 deaths, more than twice as much as any other country on both counts — would you be eager to welcome U.S. visitors?

And they are watching, which highlights one of the key features of the relationship of the United States to the world. Not only is American culture global — our movies, our music, our sports — but in other countries people pay a great deal of attention to the news coming out of this country, in a way that is not at all reciprocal. . . .

While people in other countries still admire the United States, the core characteristic of this administration’s foreign policy has been retreat. Trump withdrew from the Paris climate accords, abandoned the Iran nuclear deal, walked away from the World Health Organization, and heaped contempt on NATO. He has seldom missed an opportunity to express his admiration for the world’s most brutal dictators. Even before the novel coronavirus, citizens in most countries, particularly our staunchest allies, had poor views of him.

And now what does the world see? A country that has produced more Nobel prize winners than any other, with the world’s best universities and most innovative companies, failing disastrously to control a pandemic because of rampant incompetence and cronyism in its government — and that then rushes to resume normal social activities because its dumbest politicians and most idiotically selfish citizens think they should have the “freedom” to infect everyone around them. . . .

If there’s good news, it’s that should Trump lose in November, the world will celebrate with us, just as they did in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected. All the hope people everywhere invested in Obama (too much, it turned out) was magnified by the relief at being rid of Bush.

This time there will be celebrations too, not because the world sees greatness in Joe Biden, but because if Donald Trump is no longer the most powerful person on earth, things can’t help but get better. That’s a feeling everyone everywhere ought to be able to share.

Public Says U.S. Lost More Respect In The World In 2019

The chart above reflects the results of the new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between December 22nd and 24th of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,240 registered voters). The margin of error for both adults and registered voters is 2.9 points.

Thanks to the ridiculous antics of Donald Trump, the U.S. lost a lot of respect in the eyes of the world in 2017 and 2018. The American public says overwhelmingly that the loss of respect continued in 2019.

Public Thinks Trump Has Made The U.S. Less Respected

Donald Trump got a rude awakening when he attended the NATO conference. The other members are no longer kowtowing to him in the hope that he will more strongly support NATO. Some, like Macron, are openly disagreeing with Trump now. And worse, some are even mocking him. He cancelled a news conference and returned home early after learning of a video of some mocking him.

I wish it was just Trump that the world is now Laughlin at, but it's not. He has damaged the reputation of the United States -- and has caused most of the world to now have less respect for this country.

The American public knows this. A majority of 56% say Trump has made America less respected on the world stage, while only 23% (Trump's hardcore base) say he has made us more respected.

The chart above reflects the results of a new YouGov Poll -- done on December 4th of a national sample of 3,956 adults.

U.S. Trails Other Countries In Giving Women Respect/Dignity

The United States prides itself on equality -- giving respect and dignity to all its citizens. But is that a reality, or just a comfortable myth. The Gallup Poll questioned men and women in 21 countries -- the United States, Canada, and 19 European nations (all of them developed nations). They asked at least 1,000 people in each country if they thought women were treated with respect and dignity in their country.

The United States did not fare well in the survey. Out of the 21 nations, the U.S. finished dead last. Only 48% of women in the U.S. said they were treated with respect and dignity, while 70% of men said that. The women's opinion was lower than in every one of the other 20 countries (and the only country to have less than 50%). The men's opinion was lower than in all but one country (Italy tied among men).

This should embarrass every U.S. citizen -- men and women. We must do better than this. The old patriarchy needs to die. Everyone deserves respect and dignity.

Americans Believe The U.S. Will Lose More Respect In 2019

A couple of days ago, I provided you a poll that showed Americans believed the United States lost more respect in 2018 in the eyes of the world (even more than they lost in 2017). What about 2019? Will the United States, under the pathetic and incompetent leadership of Donald Trump, gain or lose more respect?

Sadly, the public's opinion is that the U.S. will not gain back any respect in 2019. A plurality of adults (43%) think the U.S. will lose more respect in 2019, and 37% believe we will just maintain the current very low level of respect. Only 23%, mainly Republicans, believe the U.S. will increase its respect in the eyes of other nations.

The chart above uses information from the newest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between December 30th and January 1st of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,283 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 2.9 points, and for registered voters is 2.8 points.

Public Says U.S. Lost More Respect In World In 2018

In his first year in office, Donald Trump trashed the reputation of the United States in the world by coddling enemies and arrogantly disparaging allies. Did he do any better in 2018? The American public doesn't think so. By a 28 point margin, both adults (23% to 51%) and registered voters (26% to 54%) think the U.S. lost even more respect in 2018. And every demographic groups but one (Republicans) agreed with that.

The chart reflects the results of the newest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between December 23rd and 25th of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,298 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 3.1 points, and for registered voters is 2.8 points.

Broad Agreement That Trump Has Damaged Respect For U.S.

This chart is from the Pew Research Center. It shows that the Trump administration has done serious damage to the respect of this country in the rest of the world. The left side of the chart shows that 93% of international relations experts believe the country is now less respected. The right side of the chart shows that 68% of the American public agrees with that assessment.

This poses a question -- Is the United States still the leader of the free world? Do we still retain enough trust and respect to be a world leader? I fear that the answer is NO. Our position has been so seriously damaged by the Trump administration that other countries feel they can no longer trust us, and a nation that can't be trusted cannot lead.

The sad part is that Trump's administration is only half over. He has plenty of time to further diminish the trust and respect in the United States. How long will it take to repair the damage he has done? Can it be repaired?

Public Says U.S. Is Less Respected By Others Under Trump

This chart reflects the results of a new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between December 2nd and 4th of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,286 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.1 points for adults and 2.9 points for registered voters.

It shows that the public is well aware of the loss of respect the United States has suffered under Donald Trump. A majority of adults (53%) and registered voters (55%) say other countries now respect the United States less than in the past. Only 22% of adults and 26% of registered voters say it is respected more.

Only one group has a plurality thinking it is respected more -- Republicans (49%). All other demographic groups say the U.S. is respected less (by a large margin).

The World Still Has A Very Low Opinion Of Trump

The following charts are from the latest survey in many countries by the Pew Research Center. Note that the world's respect for the U.S. and its leadership has plummeted since Trump assumed office. Most of the world doesn't like or trust Donald Trump.

Trump Forced To Back Down On His Disrespect For McCain

(Photos of Sen. John McCain and Donald Trump are from CNN.com.)

I did not always agree with the political stances taken by Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), but I respected him. He was honest, and I believe he tried to always do what he thought was best for the country -- and he served heroically in our military. He deserved full honors on his passing. And I think most Americans of all political persuasions agree with that.

Unfortunately, the present occupant of our White House is a small-minded man who cannot put aside his personal grudges to honor a man who served his country. He thought he could continue to show his disrespect for Senator McCain after his death.

It was bad enough that instead of giving a tribute to the senator from his own party (as other politicians of both parties did), he did a two-sentence tweet of condolences to McCain's family, then repeated that in an Instagram sporting his own picture (instead of McCain's). His staff had written a tribute of McCain for Trump, but he refused to give it.

But perhaps the most disrespectful was Trump premature raising of the White House flag. Most of the great politicians of both parties have the flag lowered for several days (until after their burial). But while the White House lowered the flag to half-staff on Sunday, Trump ordered it back to full-staff on Monday morning.

It was a shameful action, and there was an immediate backlash. Politicians of both political parties, veterans groups, and many more were incensed at the disrespectful action by Trump. The backlash was so unanimous and overwhelming that Trump was forced to do something he rarely does -- reverse what he had done. Later on Monday, Trump was forced to sign a document to lower the flag again, and to leave it lowered until after Senator McCain's burial.

Making Trump look even worse was a final statement to America left by Senator McCain, which was read publicly by his friend and former national campaign manager. Senator McCain wrote:

My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for sixty years, and especially my fellow Arizonans,

Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.

I have often observed that I am the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I have loved my life, all of it. I have had experiences, adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.

I owe that satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes — liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people — brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.

Fellow Americans' — that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.

We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.

We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.

Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening.

I feel it powerfully still.

Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.

Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America.

World Leaders Don't Respect Trump (& The Public Knows It)

Donald Trump has attacked our democratic allies and praised several dictators (Putin, Duterte, Erdogan, etc.). This has resulted in a loss of respect for this country and for Donald Trump. And the American public knows this. In a new poll, 66% (about two-thirds) of the public says other world leaders do not respect Trump, while only 33% says they do respect him. And the same is true of a majority of almost every demographic group.

Only one group thinks world leaders respect Trump -- Republicans. Republicans still prefer to live in the false reality of Trump's imaginary world. They have no use for facts or truth. It just goes to show that the GOP is no longer a political party -- but a cult of personality without any values. The only thing that's important to them are Trump's lies. At this point, I honestly think Trump could walk up and punch them in the face and they would believe him when he denied doing it.

The chart above uses the results of a new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between July 15th and 17th of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,272 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 3.2 points, and for registered voters is 3 points.

Trump & Putin Respect For Each Other Is Not Equal

Trump's respect and admiration for Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin is unquestioned. He has had nothing but nice things to say about Putin, and in Helsinki was was virtually fawning all over him. And the American public has not missed that. About 75% of them say Trump respects Putin.

But the U.S. public doesn't think Putin returns that respect. Only about 43% believe Putin respects Trump, while 57% say he does not.

These charts reflect the results of a new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between July 15th and 17th of a national sample of 1,500 adults, with a margin of error of 3.2 points.

U.S. Public Says World Leaders Don't Respect Trump

Do world leaders respect Donald Trump? Does Trump respect other world leaders? The American public says NO to both of those questions. About 60% of Americans say world leaders don't respect Trump, and 59% say Trump doesn't respect other world leaders. I doubt that any other president (of either party) has had numbers this bad (in either respect from other leaders or respect for them). This means the public believes Trump is damaging the reputation of this country in the world.

This survey also asked the American public to give a favorable or unfavorable rating to several important world leaders (see charts below). Trump did not fare well. Three world leaders (Merkel of Germany, Trudeau of Canada, and Macron of France) had a higher favorable rating from Americans than Trump did. And four world leaders (Merkel, Trudeau, Macron, and May from Great Britain) had a lower unfavorable rating than Trump did. That has to be embarrassing for Trump.

These charts reflect the results of a new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between April 29th and May 1st of a random national sample of 1,500 adults, with a 3.1 point margin of error.

Trump Is Alienating The Countries We Like The Best

The chart above displays a very troubling thing. It shows the countries viewed most favorably by the citizens of the United States, and along with that, what the citizens of those countries think about U.S. leadership.

Under previous presidents, those countries looked to the United States for leadership -- believing the United States would act for the benefit of all nations -- being a leader for democracy and for human rights around the world. Sadly that is no longer true.

Note that only one of those ten countries currently has a majority viewing U.S. leadership favorably -- Israel. That's understandable, since the United States under Trump has abandoned a nonpartisan effort to establish peace in the Mideast. Trump has made it very clear that the U.S. now supports the Israeli stealing of Palestinian land, and no longer can operate as a fair and impartial guide to negotiations between Israel and Palestine.

All of the other nine countries have less than 40% approval of U.S. leadership under Donald Trump. While coddling Russia, Trump has shown little respect for those countries and their leaders. That's troubling because these are the main countries we depend upon for help in the world. Trump is driving away our best allies and isolating the United States on the world stage.

The chart uses information in a recent Gallup Poll -- done between February 1st and 10th of a random national sample of 1,044 adults, with a four point margin of error. The view from the other countries is from a world poll conducted by Gallup.

Respect For U.S. President Is Lowest Since Bush's Final Years

The top chart is from the Gallup Poll -- done between February 1st and 10th of a random national sample of 1,044 adults, with a margin of error of 4 points.

It shows that the American public is very aware of the lack of respect for Donald Trump among world leaders. Only 29% believe world leaders respect him -- lower than any percentage since the last couple of years of the Bush Administration (when only 21% or 22% thought world leaders respected our president).

The second chart is from a Gallup Poll survey in over 130 countries. It shows that while respect for our president has gone down among both our allies and non-allies, it has dropped the most among our allies. Among our allies, respect for the president has gone from 63.5% to 36.8% -- a drop of 26.7 points. Among non-allies, respect has dropped from 53.9% to 48.1% --a drop of 5.8 points.

Trump has seriously damaged the U.S. reputation in the world -- and sadly, the most damage has been among our allies. Many of them don't believe that can trust us any longer.

Public Believes The U.S. Is Now Less Respected By Others

The chart above reflects the results of the latest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between January 28th and 30th of a random national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,264 registered voters), with a margin of error of 3 points (2.9 points for registered voters).

The poll's respondents were asked if, compared to the past, is the United States more or less respected by other countries today. The result was overwhelmingly negative. About 55% of adults (and 58% of registered voters) said the U.S. was less respected now. And that's the opinion of nearly every demographic group. The outlier was the Republican group (where a plurality of 45% said the U.S. is now more respected).

Republicans just don't want to admit that their favorite demagogue has done a terrible job in dealing with other countries (both friends and enemies). Everyone else knows better. They know Trump has seriously damaged the reputation and standing of the United States in the eyes of the world.

68% Say U.S. Is Now Less Respected By Other Countries

Polls taken of citizens in other countries show a sharp drop in respect for the United States government. Donald Trump is simply not respected as past presidents have been.

And most Americans realize that. About 68% of the general population and 87% of Democrats believe the U.S. is less respected by other countries today as compared to the past. The Republicans polled show less belief in that, but even with them a plurality understands the U.S. is less respected (42% to 29%).

The U.S. used to be the leader of the "free world", but that is no longer true. With Trump as president, other countries (even those traditionally viewed as our allies) no longer have faith in the leadership of the United States.

The chart above is from a recent poll done by the Pew Research Center between October 25th and 30th of a random national sample of 1,504 adults, with a 2.9 point margin of error.