Tag: Trump disdain for U.S. military

Trump Attacked Generals as Weak and Too Focused on Allies, Woodward’s Book Says

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The journalist Bob Woodward’s “Rage,” which will be released next week, recounts tense conflicts between the president and his senior leaders.

President Trump denigrated senior American military officials when he told his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, during a meeting in 2017 that his top generals were weak and overly concerned with their relationships with allies, according to a new book by the journalist Bob Woodward.

And in a discussion with Mr. Woodward, Mr. Trump called the United States military “suckers” for paying extensive costs to protect South Korea.

“We’re defending you, we’re allowing you to exist,” Mr. Trump said of South Korea, to a stunned Mr. Woodward. Continue reading.

What Trump officials really say — and don’t say — in denying that he disparaged fallen troops

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The White House is in full denial mode about the damning report first published last week in the Atlantic that President Trump had repeatedly denigrated members of the military and the nation’s war dead.

But as allies — and one prominent erstwhile ally — stepped forward to offer versions of events similar to the line touted by the White House, it’s worth emphasizing that not all denials are created equal. Some address only specific aspects of the report, while leaving open the possibility that others are true or that such things were said at other points. Others vouch for Trump while very notably declining to address anything specific.

Since Monday, the White House has emphasized comments by two people in particular: Zach Fuentes, a top former White House aide and ally of John Kelly, and John Bolton, the former Trump national security adviser who wrote a scathing tell-all about his time in the White House. Let’s look at what they and others have said. Continue reading.

Trump steps off the golf course and takes a swing at John McCain

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With the news cycle exploding over reports that Donald Trump called American soldiers who died to stop a German attack on Paris “losers” and “sucker,” it’s obvious that Trump had only one choice: Spend the day honoring America’s military by chasing a little white ball around his private golf course in Virginia.

But if Trump’s scheduled for Saturday seemed incredibly callous and tone deaf, his continuing reaction to the scandal is just as predictable as the way he shaves off just a few strokes on his scorecard. Trump’s most recent tweets starts off with a series of lies about all the great things he’s done for the military. A list that for some reason doesn’t include stealing the money that was meant to be used for housing, schools, and hospitals to be used for his nonexistent and useless “Wall.” Then Trump declared that The Atlantic author Jeffrey Goldberg was a “slimeball reporter” who was ruining all his hard work in doing things like the Veteran’s Choice bill that President Obama actually signed.

Trump also accused Goldberg of “making up a horrible charge” and said that he was “maybe working with disgruntled people.” Disgruntled people apparently covers any White House official because the statements first reported by Goldberg have been confirmed by The Washington Post, and the Associated Press, and Fox News. Not only that, Losergate is perfectly in line with everything Trump has said since before he was elected. Oh, and Trump couldn’t even make it two tweets without taking a swing at John McCain. Continue reading

Jennifer Griffin defended by Fox News colleagues after Trump Twitter attack over confirmation of Atlantic reporting

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Jennifer Griffin caused an unexpected media firestorm Friday when she did something fairly routine for a reporter: A competitor had broken a story on her beat, so she set out to see whether she could match it.

In this case, it was the Atlantic’s blockbuster report that President Trump had made disparaging remarks about veterans. Griffin, a national security correspondent for Fox News, found individuals to validate key aspects of the story, sharing her reporting on Twitter and on anchor Bret Baier’s news show.

Other beat reporters had confirmed aspects of the Atlantic story, too. But the fact Griffin works for Fox, whose opinion hosts and corporate owners are seen as reliable supporters and defenders of the president, turned her revelations into a watershed development. It led to Trump’s call for her firing late Friday on Twitter — and an impassioned pushback from Fox News colleagues defending her journalistic honor. Continue reading.