Dem
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GOP
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Back in September 2020, there was a much-discussed article in The Atlantic in which an "anonymous" but high-ranking member of the Trump administration relayed some very unpleasant things that then-president Donald Trump said about veterans. When we wrote about it at the time, we summarized it thusly:
The Atlantic has a new story that, if true, would be very damning. According to numerous inside sources, the President has regularly demeaned veterans who paid the ultimate price. For example, during the now-infamous trip to France, during which Trump declined to participate in rain-soaked 100th anniversary ceremonies at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, he reportedly told one aide "Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers," and said to another that 1,800 Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood were "suckers" for getting killed. When John McCain died, Trump reportedly remarked "We're not going to support that loser's funeral," and objected to flying flags at half-staff in the Senator's honor, asking "What the fu** are we doing that for? Guy was a fu**ing loser." George H.W. Bush got similar treatment, apparently, with Trump describing his predecessor as a "loser" for having been shot down. And when the President was dreaming of a North Korean-style military parade, he supposedly did not want any amputee veterans invited, observing "Nobody wants to see that."
We believed the allegations to be true (and we explained why in the linked item). Meanwhile, pretty much everyone at the time suspected that former White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly (ret.), who was dismissed as Chief of Staff well over a year before the story went to print, was The Atlantic's primary source. Yesterday, in a statement released to CNN, Kelly finally confirmed that he was indeed the source, and reiterated that everything he told the magazine was the truth.
We pass this along primarily because of the item we had yesterday about how to damage Trump. What that piece said, in essence, is that attacking Trump the politician is worthless. His voters don't really care that he doesn't deliver on policy, or that his policies are often incomprehensible or contradictory. On the other hand, it does work to attack Trump the person. One can imagine a few ads next year featuring Kelly—a wildly popular, very successful, highly decorated Marine Corps general—talking about how he just can't vote Trump because Trump doesn't respect the troops. Think something along the lines of the famous "Confessions of a Republican" ad from 1964. Could be powerful stuff. (Z)