The American Cemetery at Normandy sits on a bluff overlooking the beach where, on June 6, 1944, American soldiers waded ashore to begin the invasion of France. The old battlefield is marked with shell craters and gun pits offering mute testimony to the fury of that day. In the cemetery itself stand endless rows of white crosses and the occasional Star of David – mute testimony to the sacrifice it required.
If you’ve ever been there, ever knelt to read names on marble markers or stood in contemplation of the gray waters of the English Channel, you understand why my thoughts flew back there last week. That, of course, is when The Atlantic posted a story alleging that Donald Trump described American military personnel captured or wounded in war as “losers” and “suckers.”
Reporter Jeffrey Goldberg, citing four anonymous sources, writes of how Trump canceled a planned visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in 2018 to commemorate the centennial of the World War I Battle of Belleau Wood. The public explanation was that it was raining too hard for the presidential helicopter to fly, and the Secret Service nixed the idea of a motorcade.
“Neither claim,” writes Goldberg, “was true.”
He quotes Trump asking, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” Separately, according to Goldberg, he described the 1,811 marines who died in the battle – which stopped the Germans from reaching Paris – as “suckers” for getting killed. Plus, says Goldberg, he was concerned the rain might muss his hair.