Trump’s vision for the military: hunting cartels, patrolling US cities, quelling dissent – By Sonner Kehrt (The War Horse) / Feb 21, 2024
Here’s what the former president and his loyalists have said about how they might use U.S. troops in a second term.
Military officials, Donald Trump told a crowd at a rally in Iowa this past October, are “some of the dumbest people I ever met in my life.”
It wasn’t the first time the Republican front-runner and former president offered his opinions on those who have served. During his first presidential campaign, Trump famously belittled John McCain, who was shot down during a bombing mission over Vietnam in 1967, and spent more than five years as a prisoner of war.
“I like people that weren’t captured, OK?” he said. Later, after McCain died, Trump reportedly complained to his aides about half-masted flags. “What the fuck are we doing that for?” he asked. “Guy was a fucking loser.”
As president in 2018, he also allegedly called veterans buried in military cemeteries “losers” and referred to the 1,800 Americans who died at Belleau Wood, the famous 1918 Marine Corps battle, as “suckers.” And in 2020, after he contracted Covid, Trump suggested that Gold Star families he had recently met with were to blame.
