Serving in a unit like the 101st Airborne Division can feel like a job. It’s a normal, everyday thing. Even in combat. It’s not until after you leave a famous unit like that — after you leave the Army, in fact — that you realize it is a privilege to lead and serve alongside such soldiers.
It’s not until much later, among the regular people at the office, that you realize how unlikely it is that anyone around you would ever grab three guys and come running if you were pinned down or out of ammo. In the Army, you take those things for granted because everybody does it. They do it. They don’t question it. They don’t all survive.
For those of us who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, Section 60 — the burial site of hundreds of service members killed in those wars — is the inner sanctum.
I survived and I’m old now. Not truly old. I’m 46. But old in the Army sense. I’m no longer carved out of wood. My left hamstring groans at the thought of running more than a mile. Doctors have taken an interest in my colon.
But I realize this is a privilege. It’s a gift. Being old, I mean. Aging out. For once, I’m finally aware of the privilege in the moment. I am old. But I have friends who are still in their 20s. Friends who should be in their 40s. Some of them are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
That is what makes Arlington a special place. And for those of us who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, Section 60 — the burial site of hundreds of service members killed in those wars — is the inner sanctum. It is the most sacred plot among more than 600 hallowed acres. When I lived in Northern Virginia during Barack Obama’s administration, I avoided Section 60 studiously. It was too much, and still too close. There was always that looming sense that it could’ve been me. Maybe it should’ve been me.
So I didn’t visit until I was about to move back to Dallas. An Army buddy told me I had to go before I left D.C. So I did. Finally.
All of this is to say that, to combat veterans, Arlington National Cemetery has the same power that all holy places have. And that is why Donald Trump’s recent behavior is so repulsive.
Trump was so eager to use Arlington’s Section 60 as a backdrop for a campaign event this week that he may have broken federal laws against politicizing the burial ground to do it. Trump’s staff also shoved aside a cemetery official trying to stop them. He even posed for a photograph over a U.S. Marine’s gravesite, grinning and giving a thumbs-up. The moment was jaw-droppingly crass and vulgar, as all of Trump’s are. It defiled sacred ground.
But of course, Trump’s disregard for military tradition and his disdain for military service members is well documented. This incident was only the latest in a long line.
Trump began his adult life dodging the draft for Vietnam. Someone else went in his place. Maybe that person survived. Or maybe they’re buried at Arlington with thousands of other Vietnam veterans.
Trump later told Howard Stern that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases was my ‘personal Vietnam.’
‘Whatever the outcome, the thought has never troubled Trump. He later told Howard Stern that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases was “my personal Vietnam.” When those comments resurfaced during his first run for president, his supporters shrugged them off. “It’s a joke!” they said. “He’s a showman!” If it had only ended there.
In 2015, responding to criticism from Sen. John McCain, a former POW, Trump claimed, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” However one feels about the Vietnam War, few Americans have given more for their country than John McCain. That didn’t matter to Trump. A year later, after Trump proposed the first version of his “Muslim ban,” the parents of Army officer Humayun Khan took the stage at the Democratic National Convention. Khan is buried at Arlington, having been killed in Iraq in 2004. His parents gave an impassioned plea to voters, laying out how service members of all faiths had sacrificed their lives in America’s wars. They denounced Trump’s attempt to single out Muslims. He responded by spending days attacking the grieving Gold Star family. General Mark Milley told The Atlantic that when he invited a wounded, wheelchair-bound soldier to sing “God Bless America” at Milley’s welcoming ceremony as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, Trump admonished him. “Why do you bring people like that here?” Trump asked, according to Milley. “No one wants to see that, the wounded.” On a trip to France in 2018, Trump declined a scheduled visit to 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.” This horrific statement was confirmed by Trump’s then-chief of staff, John Kelly, a former Marine general whose own son was killed in Afghanistan and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Kelly also confirmed that in another conversation on the same trip, Trump called the Marines who died at Belleau Wood “suckers” for getting killed. These are not one-off statements by a rhetorically reckless buffoon. And just a few weeks ago, Trump told an audience that the Congressional Medal of Freedom he’d awarded to Republican donor Miriam Adelson was “much better” than the Medal of Honor. Trump said the civilian award was superior because Medal of Honor recipients are “either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they are dead.” These are not one-off statements by a rhetorically reckless buffoon. This man harbors deep resentment toward the military and those who’ve sacrificed in service. Even when he poses with a family — as he did at Arlington this week — he only does so to enhance his campaign or his political prospects. Trump’s use for the military and our dead extends only as far as it suits him. All Americans should keep this front of mind as we head into the fall. In particular, veterans should remember that Donald Trump’s behavior at Arlington National Cemetery this week epitomizes not only how he is a menace to the United States, but how he is an enemy of everything we fought for.
Brandon Friedman
Brandon Friedman is the CEO of Rakkasan Tea Company. During the Obama administration, he worked as deputy assistant secretary for public affairs in the Department of Housing and Urban Development and director of digital strategy in the Department of Veterans Affairs. He served two tours as an infantry officer in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan and Iraq. You can follow him on Bluesky. 
