A new report from the Washington Post appears to confirm reporting that Donald Trump has mocked and criticized military veterans as well as U.S. troops missing in action.
Following an article published Thursday in The Atlantic, the Post reported on Friday that their sources had confirmed Trump’s attacks on military members and called them “losers.”
“A former senior administration official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, confirmed to The Washington Post that the president frequently made disparaging comments about veterans and soldiers missing in action, referring to them at times as ‘losers,'” the newspaper reported.
“In one account, the president told senior advisers that he didn’t understand why the U.S. government placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action because they had performed poorly and gotten caught and deserved what they got, according to a person familiar with the discussion,” the article goes on.
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The Post also claimed Trump said those who served in the Vietnam War must be “losers” because they weren’t able to get out of the draft. The President avoided serving during the war.
Trump also “complained bitterly to then-Chief of Staff John F. Kelly that he didn’t understand why Kelly and others in the military treated McCain” so reverentially.
“Isn’t he kind of a loser?” Trump reportedly asked about McCain, who was a decorated war hero.
The story about how Trump speaks about the military appears to be snowballing.
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Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media
