“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/02/politics/john-kelly-donald-trump-us-service-members-veterans/index.html
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I honor all veterans who died in war, the Marines I served with, my high school comrades, and my great uncles. Semper Fi, Gentlemen.
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Trump was asked about the naval service of then–U.S. senator from Arizona John McCain, in which Trump responded:
Trump Has Mocked the U.S. Military His Whole Life
Egged on by his father, the U.S. president began expressing contempt for Americans who fight in wars as far back as high school, his classmates say.
Foreign Policy Magazine My FP:SEPTEMBER 8, 2020
Perhaps no one was less surprised last week when it was reported that U.S. President Donald Trump had called American war dead “losers” and “suckers” than his former high school classmate George M. White.
The 74-year-old retired Army veteran was Trump’s superior—the first captain, or highest-ranking cadet—in Trump’s 1964 graduating class at the New York Military Academy. White said he witnessed up close Trump’s contempt for military service, discipline, and tradition, as well his ungoverned sense of entitlement, all helped along by his father Fred Trump’s generous donations to the school.
“No, those remarks absolutely didn’t surprise me. In my dealings with him he was a heartless, obnoxious son of a bitch,” White told me in an interview over the weekend.
According to White and other former classmates at the academy, Trump’s five years there, coupled with the disregard for U.S. military traditions he learned at his father’s knee, helps explain a great deal of the president’s reported contempt for those who fought, died, or were wounded in America’s wars, as well as his skeptical view of the need for the United States to fight in places like Vietnam and Iraq.
According to the Atlantic magazine, during a trip to France to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 U.S. Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers.” Indicating that he didn’t understand why the United States had intervened at all in Europe in 1917, Trump also reportedly asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?”
The Atlantic article, portions of which have been corroborated by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and Fox News, also reported that when Trump aborted a visit to another World War I cemetery, blaming the weather, he remarked, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In addition, Trump reportedly said that the presence of maimed U.S. veterans would upset spectators at a military parade, commenting, “Nobody wants to see that.”
Trump’s comments appeared to be in line with the attitude he reportedly evinced on Memorial Day 2017, when he visited the grave of 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, the son of his then-homeland security secretary and later chief of staff John Kelly. Standing at the grave of the younger Kelly, who died in Afghanistan in 2010, Trump reportedly turned to the secretary and said: “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
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But the report was supplemented on Friday morning by the Washington Post, which quoted “a former senior administration official” as saying that Trump “frequently made disparaging comments about veterans and soldiers missing in action, referring to them at times as ‘losers.’”
The Post quoted “a person familiar with the discussion” as saying that Trump told senior advisers he did not understand why the US government valued finding soldiers missing in action “because they had performed poorly and gotten caught and deserved what they got.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/03/trump-american-war-dead-losers-suckers-report
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Trump Boasted of Avoiding STDs While Dating: Vaginas Are 'Landmines ... It Is My Personal Vietnam'
Donald Trump likens avoiding contracting STDs during his single years to Vietnam in Howard Stern interview
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" A senior Defense Department official with firsthand knowledge of events and a senior U.S. Marine Corps officer who was told about Trump’s comments confirmed some of the remarks to The Associated Press, including the 2018 cemetery comments.
The defense officials said Trump made the comments as he begged off visiting the cemetery outside Paris during a meeting following his presidential daily briefing on the morning of Nov. 10, 2018.
Staffers from the National Security Council and the Secret Service told Trump that rainy weather made helicopter travel to the cemetery risky, but they could drive there. Trump responded by saying he didn’t want to visit the cemetery because it was “filled with losers,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss it publicly."
Reed: Trump Has Disparaged Fallen U.S. Soldiers & Gold Star Families on the Record
PROVIDENCE, RI -- Today, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a West Point graduate and the Ranking Member of the Armed Services Committee, condemned President Trump’s language deriding members of the Armed Forces, fallen U.S. service members, and veterans.
While President Trump denied much of the details from a report in the Atlantic that he called fallen American soldiers “losers” and “suckers” and asked staff that disabled veterans be excluded from military parades, Senator Reed noted that President Trump has been caught on tape on multiple occasions insulting veterans, POWs, Americans with disabilities, and active duty troops who were wounded in battle.
“President Trump has denied saying a few of these things, but there is no denying his pettiness. He has certainly disparaged members of our Armed Forces who’ve dedicated their lives to serving others. He has verbally insulted Gold Star families, attacked the memories of courageous POWs like John McCain, derided men of honor like General Mattis, and played down the severity of trauma and wounds suffered by our deployed troops. Donald Trump has no understanding or meaningful regard for those who have rendered distinguished military service in war and peace. All of that is well established. You don’t need secondhand accounts because some of the comments occurred with cameras or microphones recording.
“President Trump’s toxic brand of so-called leadership has done serious, lasting damage to the U.S. military. He has broken faith with our troops and sought to misuse the military for his own partisan agenda. He has taken money away from needed military projects and diverted it to his ineffective border wall. He seems intent on making it difficult for members of the U.S. military who are stationed overseas to exercise their right to vote. The list goes on.
“It will take years to repair the damage President Trump has inflicted on the United States military.
“No one should condone the way Donald Trump insults people who gave their last full measure defending our nation. He degrades the sacred obligations of the office he’s been entrusted with.”
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Trump on Tape
Which former Trump defense secretary brands him a security threat?
Painting him as a security risk, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Sunday added his voice to those critical of former President Donald Trump for his handling of classified information after his presidency. Jun 18, 2023.
Donald Trump, on his social-media network, Truth Social, wrote that Mark Milley’s phone call to reassure China in the aftermath of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.” (The phone call was, in fact, explicitly authorized by Trump-administration officials.)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/trump-milley-execution-incitement-violence/675435/
Marine General James Mattis comments on Trump.
WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis ripped into his former boss President Donald Trump in a scathing Wednesday night statement.
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis wrote in a statement published by The Atlantic. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership,” he wrote, adding that he “watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled.”
Mattis’ statement comes as the nation braces for the ninth day of protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd. Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The ensuing civil unrest, some of which turned violent, prompted Trump to call for governors to use harsher tactics and greater force when confronting protesters.
On a Monday call with state governors, a recording of which was obtained by NBC News, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told states “to dominate the battle space” when dealing with the demonstrations. Trump also said on the same call that he was putting the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley “in charge” of protest response efforts.
Mattis, who resigned from the Trump administration in December 2018, criticized Esper’s terminology.
“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ’dominate,” he explained. “Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part.”
On Wednesday, Esper told reporters at the Pentagon that he was using military lexicon but regretted using the term.
Mattis also took issue with a Monday night incident in which protestors were forcibly cleared from Lafayette Square, a small park in front of the president’s residence.
“The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind,” Mattis explained.
Trump walked through the square with several members of his Cabinet to stand in front of St. John’s Church while holding a Bible and posing for photographs. He later motioned to members of his Cabinet to join him for more pictures.
Esper, who has previously said he would preserve the U.S. military’s apolitical nature, entered the frame and stood alongside Trump for the photo op. In a Tuesday night interview with NBC News, Esper said: “I didn’t know where I was going” when asked about the highly criticized photo opportunity. “I thought I was going to do two things: to see some damage and to talk to the troops.”
“We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation,” Mattis added.
“We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”
Trump fired back in a Wednesday night tweet by saying, he “had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world’s most overrated General.” He continued by saying that he “didn’t like his “leadership” style or much else about him.”
“Glad he is gone!”
Before Mattis became Trump’s Defense secretary, the four-star Marine Corps general led the U.S. Central Command, the combat command responsible for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mattis, a revered Marine with a military career spanning four decades, was hailed for his battlefield prowess and kinship with rank-and-file servicemembers.
Throughout his military career, Mattis was affectionately referred to as “Mad Dog” and “warrior monk.” He was known for his strategy, matter-of-factness and disdain for PowerPoint, which is recognized as the U.S. military’s signature teaching tool.
In his extraordinary resignation letter that rocked Washington, Mattis wrote to Trump that he has “a right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours.”
“My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors,” Mattis said, “are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues.”
The president has frequently lashed out at America’s allies in France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany, while at times appearing to side with U.S. adversaries over his own officials.
In 2015, shortly after launching his presidential candidacy, Trump publicly blasted McCain, saying “He’s not a war hero.” He added, “I like people who weren’t captured.”
Trump only amplified his criticism of McCain as the Arizona lawmaker grew critical of his acerbic style of politics, culminating in a late-night “no” vote scuttling Trump’s plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. That vote shattered what few partisan loyalties bound the two men, and Trump has continued to attack McCain for that vote, even posthumously.
The magazine said Trump also referred to former President George H.W. Bush as a “loser” because he was shot down by the Japanese as a Navy pilot in World War II.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/09/03/report-trump-disparaged-us-war-dead-as-losers-suckers/
Trump said Putin's smart.' I mean, he's taken over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I'd say that's pretty smart. He's taking over a country, really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people and just walking right in."
Trump Foundation shut down for Misconduct
Trump Ordered to Pay Eight Separate Charities $250,000 Each
Remaining $1.8 Million in Trump Foundation Bank Account Disbursed Among Charities
NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today released the following statement after Donald J. Trump was forced to pay more than $2 million in court-ordered damages to eight different charities for illegally misusing charitable funds at the Trump Foundation for political purposes:
“Not only has the Trump Foundation shut down for its misconduct, but the president has been forced to pay $2 million for misusing charitable funds for his own political gain. Charities are not a means to an end, which is why these damages speak to the president’s abuse of power and represent a victory for not-for-profits that follow the law. Funds have finally gone where they deserve — to eight credible charities. My office will continue to fight for accountability because no one is above the law — not a businessman, not a candidate for office, and not even the president of the United States.”
As part of a resolution of the lawsuit announced on November 7th, Trump was ordered to pay $2 million, or $250,000, a piece to eight different charities. Those charities are Army Emergency Relief, the Children’s Aid Society, Citymeals-on-Wheels, Give an Hour, Martha’s Table, the United Negro College Fund, the United Way of National Capital Area, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Additionally, Trump was forced to reimburse his namesake foundation $11,525 for sports paraphernalia and champagne purchased at a charity gala, which was added to $1,797,598.30 already in the foundation’s bank account. The combined $1,809,123.30 was split evenly and recently transferred to the eight agreed upon charities. Each charity ended up receiving a total of $476,140.41.
Additionally, as part of the settlement, Trump was required to agree to 19 admissions, acknowledging his personal misuse of funds at the Trump Foundation, and agreed to restrictions on future charitable service and ongoing reporting to the Office of the Attorney General, in the event he creates a new charity. The settlement also included mandatory training requirements for Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, which the three children have already undergone. Finally, the settlement required the Trump Foundation to shutter its doors last December and dissolve under court supervision.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_J._Trump_Foundation
Indicted Four Times, Impeached Twice
Most corrupt President in history. And America may reelect him. Sad.
Donald Trump's Fraudulent University
Judge finalizes $25 million settlement for 'victims of Donald Trump's fraudulent university'
Trump University attendees are getting paid back.
"Judge Curiel's order finalizing the $25 million Trump University settlement means that victims of Donald Trump's fraudulent university will finally receive the relief they deserve," he said in a statement, adding that the amount surpassed the initial number the class-action suit initially negotiated.
"This settlement marked a stunning reversal by President Trump, who for years refused to compensate the victims of his sham university," the statement added. "My office won't hesitate to hold those who commit fraud accountable, no matter how rich or powerful they may be."
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