The controversy surrounding Donald Trump’s visit to a memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery earlier this week has put the military back in the spotlight in the 2024 presidential race.
What was meant to highlight a potential vulnerability in Kamala Harris’ record as vice president — the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, during which 13 American service members were killed and dozens more wounded — backfired for Trump, as his campaign faced accusations of physically shoving a cemetery staff member and violating federal law by using cemetery grounds for political purposes.
It is the latest incident in recent weeks in which the military has been used as a political cudgel in the election campaign, in a race in which neither presidential candidate served in the military but both chose veterans as their running mates.
It is part of a political strategy that has been underway for decades.
“I think there’s always a political instinct to lean toward respect for the American military, because it’s a binding moral foundation,” the representative said. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), who served in the Navy before running for office. “That’s why attacks based on disrespect toward her are tempting to political operatives.”
Sometimes these incidents involved genuine military and national security decisions, especially for sitting presidents and their cabinets, but not always.
Consider the scandals that still resonate in the American political imagination: Benghazi, the 2012 attack on U.S. facilities in Libya that became a major political liability for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton; the vote to go to war with Iraq, which dogged Clinton and President Joe Biden for decades; and the “Swift Boat campaign” against John Kerry’s military record that has become a political way of referring to an unjust attack.
In 1992, George HW Bush criticized his opponent, Bill Clinton, calling him draft evaderIn 1988, Michael Dukakis criticized Bush over the Iran-Contra affair and staged a photo shoot on a tank to present himself as a capable military leader, though The plan went wrong When his oversized helmet and grin seemed more ridiculous than powerful, Bush, a World War II hero, ran an ad featuring the photo that helped sink the Democrat’s campaign.
“Dukakis, of course, did it to show that he was tough and that he cared about national security, but he looked ridiculous in the hat, and it backfired,” said Peter Feaver, a Duke University professor who previously served as an aide to the White House National Security Council. “And I would say that Trump has had to wrestle with this a lot, too, in terms of approaching the ceremonial moment with the seriousness, the respect, the circumspection and the thoughtfulness that the moment requires.”
“Presidents have to pass the commander-in-chief test,” Feaver added. “They have to meet a minimum threshold that allows them to be trusted with the office of commander-in-chief, with the nuclear arsenal, and with the lives of our men and women who serve in uniform.”
The Army said in a statement Thursday that while Trump was at a wreath-laying ceremony to honor service members who died during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, at the invitation of some of the service members’ families, members of Trump’s campaign team “abruptly pulled aside” and “unfairly attacked” a staffer who had tried to block a campaign photographer from taking photos of Trump at service members’ graves. The campaign was “aware of federal law, Army regulations, and Department of Defense policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds,” the Army said, defending its staffer.
NPR first reported The incident. No charges have been filed against the staff member, according to the Army, which considers the matter closed.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement defending the former president’s visit that “there has been no greater defender of our brave military men and women” than Trump. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung directed POLITICO to a 2020 press conference. Biden campaign announcement showing the president standing at the grave of a service member.
Harris campaign spokesman Michael Tyler called the Arlington incident “quite sad” but “not surprising” in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, and spokesman James Singer referred POLITICO to the line from the vice president’s Democratic National Convention speech last week in which he pledged to “fulfill our sacred obligation to take care of our troops and their families, and I will always honor and never belittle their service and their sacrifice.”
When President Joe Biden was still the Democratic nominee, the Trump campaign An announcement was issued The president is pictured looking at his watch at a 2021 ceremony honoring soldiers who died during the withdrawal from Afghanistan. And at last month’s Republican National Convention, some military family members appeared on stage to criticize him.
“When you honor those who have passed away, those who have died in service to their country, that is the most ceremonial part of the presidency, to the point where it is often spoken of in sacred terms: ‘Hallowed ground,’ ‘It is sacred,’” Feaver said. “People who want to be president have to prove that, in that moment, they can rise to the occasion.”
Now that Harris has replaced Biden at the head of the Democratic ticket, Republicans are likely to raise their role in the Afghanistan withdrawal until Election Day.
“It’s going to be a very important responsibility (for Harris), particularly when she says, ‘I was the last person in the room and I fully approved the plan,’” said veteran Republican strategist Charlie Gerow. “To me, that’s game, set and match.”
The Trump campaign has also sought to undermine the service record of Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whom the Ohio senator JD VanceTrump’s running mate, Walz, has accused Trump of “stolen valor.” Walz, who served for 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard and retired from the military to run for Congress shortly before his troops were sent to Iraq, has dismissed the criticism.
“My record speaks for itself,” he said on CNN Thursday.
Criticism of Walz’s service record dates back to the 2004 presidential campaign, when then-candidate George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard was called into question. That scandal culminated in CBS News Publication of a series of documents The network’s source had fabricated the material that served as the basis for the 2015 film “Truth.” During the same campaign, John Kerry’s record was also called into question in a “swipe boat” attack masterminded by Chris LaCivita, who now serves as a senior adviser to the Trump campaign.
But Trump is also vulnerable when it comes to military personnel and veterans, with a history that includes reports that he called them “fools and losers” — which he denies — and saying that Sen. John McCain, who was a prisoner of war, “was not a war hero” because of his capture. Earlier this month, Trump drew criticism from veterans groups for saying the country’s highest civilian honor was “much better” than its highest military honor because service members who receive the latter are either “in very bad shape” or “dead.”
“Those are things that can’t be erased — they are stains, indelible stains, and nothing Vance says or does can overcome them,” Feaver said.
But Gerow said he doesn’t think this will affect Trump’s share of the vote among the military. “It didn’t make any difference in the previous two cycles. He won the majority of the veteran vote and the military vote, and I think he’ll do it again this time,” he said.
