The Trump Arlington Photo Furor Is a Study in Hypocrisy

We’ve reached the point in America where people can believe Trump taking a photo is more disgraceful than the Biden-Harris administration getting someone’s son killed on a badly conceived rerun of the Fall of Saigon.

This is despite House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and his committee releasing a detailed report earlier this month from their three-year investigation into the withdrawal, stating that it serves “as an indictment on the administration’s reckless refusal to properly prepare for the withdrawal.”

It began when Donald Trump was invited to attend a wreath-laying ceremony in honor of the 13 American service members who were killed as a result of the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago this August. During the visit, the former president was asked to take pictures with the family of Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover—one of the service members killed in the 2021 suicide bombing at Abbey Gate outside the Kabul airport in Afghanistan—at his graveside. Democrats then used that photo to attack Trump, with some claiming he broke federal law simply by being present, and that he had disrespected the dead the same way.

Kamala Harris led the hand-wringing, saying in a statement, 

As Vice President, I have had the privilege of visiting Arlington National Cemetery several times. It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honor American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation. It is not a place for politics. And yet, as was reported this week, Donald Trump’s team chose to film a video there, resulting in an altercation with cemetery staff. Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.

As for exploitation, turn next to pearl-clutching the New York Times, who sent a staffer to record the names of those buried near where the photo of Trump alongside the 13 Gold Star families was taken, and then find their families to seek an anti-Trump quote. As their way of honoring the dead, the Times called out Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano, an eight-tour combat vet who died by suicide in 2020, and whose headstone inadvertently appeared in the photos of Trump with the Gold Star families. The Times tracked down sister Michele, who said only, “We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored and respected accordingly.” So much for reptilian journalism.

“When you take a photo of your loved one then other headstones are gonna be present as well,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), a veteran, said. “Frankly, I think it’s very disappointing that The New York Times went and found a family whose headstone was featured in that photograph of another Gold Star family and then went to them to try to embarrass the Gold Star families who wanted President Trump there.”

We’re sure the family was honored to have Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano brought into all this by the Times, and was pleased the Times did not bother to talk about the epidemic of suicides that plagues our best. No, Marckesano was only worth exploiting to the point where one of his relatives might backhandedly criticize Trump. He was used again by a heartless media strung out on TDS. Bonus: the New York Times scolding not just Trump, but all those who appeared in the picture taken in Section 60. That included Gold Star family members, despite their posting videos on X stating they had invited Trump to the event and had not heard from either Harris or Biden.

Yet here is a photo of Joe Biden at Arlington with a grieving Gold Star relative, in Section 60, with plenty of names visible on adjacent headstones. No evidence the New York Times contacted any of their relatives. Is Biden’s photo no less exploitative and political than Trump’s? What was its intent if not to add to the propaganda and political noise that Joe Biden cares about the troops’ deaths?

Joe Biden also used shots of Arlington National Cemetery and flag-draped caskets in a recent political ad. You can even see the names on the gravestones in the video with the caption reading, “Donald Trump doesn’t know a damn thing about service to his country.” Most of the ad text is Biden “quoting” Trump degrading military service based on unknown sources from debunked reporting by liberal tabloids. Here’s another. FYI: Joe Biden depended on the same kind of medical deferments Trump did to stay out of the military during the Vietnam war. Harris never served, and her running mate has misrepresented his National Guard experience.

Arlington National Cemetery is a difficult place to visit. On the one hand, signs admonish visitors to show respect to the dead of so many wars, while on the other, hordes of sweat-drippy tourists race from one famous gravesite to another to the Tomb of the Unknowns, as if the place were the Disneyland of Death. It is all as solemn as a cheerleader, and yes, many photos are taken of headstones with names visible—the fallen men and women treated as props for selfies to show back home. And here we are outside the Tomb! Looks just like on the tee vee! is the next shot.

All this drives home the point Arlington exists for many purposes, many ends. But here is one rarely spoken of: It is a place for commanders-in-chief to confront the results of their decisions. They all made the pilgrimage at some point, the warmongers Bush and Obama, game faces on. This stands in for neither man ever sweating in body armor in the Iraqi summer sun, or wincing when a bullet flew too close, or watching someone now in Section 60 die in their lap.

Biden and Harris were not at Arlington to meet the 13 Gold Star families because they were afraid. They stood aside from those men and women as they stood aside from their decision to use those men and women in a terrible war that they now want us to forget. Biden in particular bears a heavy burden, having sponsored the war for eight years as Obama’s vice president and then continuing to do so under his own administration. Now, for Harris to rake Trump over the coals for posing for some photos instead of taking responsibility for the dead in those photos tells you much about the woman, crying exploitation while shirking the responsibility of her own exploitation of those young lives.