Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to attend a wreath-laying ceremony marking the third anniversary of the suicide bombing at Kabul airport in Afghanistan that killed 13 U.S. soldiers. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Hide caption
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Two of Donald Trump’s campaign staffers got into an altercation and physical altercation with officials at Arlington National Cemetery, where the former president was attending a wreath-laying ceremony, NPR reports.
A source familiar with the incident said cemetery officials tried to prevent Trump staff from taking videos and photos in the area where recent US military casualties are buried. Arlington officials made it clear that only cemetery employees were allowed to take photos and videos in the area, known as Section 60, the sources said.
According to sources, when cemetery staff tried to block Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, the campaign staff yelled at them and pushed them away.
As U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan, President Trump took part in an event marking the third anniversary of a deadly attack on U.S. troops in the country that left 13 U.S. soldiers dead. The Trump campaign has blamed President Biden and Vice President Harris, who is now the Democratic presidential nominee, for the chaotic withdrawal.
In a statement to NPR, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Chang strongly denied the notion that a physical confrontation took place, adding that the campaign was “prepared to release the footage if such defamatory allegations are made.”
“The facts are that a private photographer was allowed on the premises and yet, for some reason, an anonymous individual, who clearly suffered from mental illness, decided to physically disrupt members of President Trump’s team in the middle of a very solemn ceremony,” Chang said in a statement.
The Trump campaign declined to immediately release the footage. On Wednesday, the campaign released a video of Trump’s Section 60 visit on TikTok.
Late Tuesday night, President Trump posted photos on social media of the Gold Star families who had invited him in. In the posts, the families thanked the president and said they had invited him to film a campaign event at Section 60. However, filming there would violate federal law, which bans political or election-related activities at cemeteries.
At a campaign event on Wednesday, Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance denied the story, saying, “The altercation at Arlington is a story that the media created, and I don’t think there’s any truth to it,” adding, “Apparently, somebody at Arlington, somebody on the staff, had a minor disagreement with somebody, and the media made it into national news.”
“We can confirm that an incident occurred and have filed a report,” Arlington National Cemetery said in a statement to NPR on Tuesday.
“Federal law prohibits political or election-related activity at Army National Cemeteries, including photographers, content creators and others who visit in direct support of political party candidates’ campaigns,” the statement said. “Arlington National Cemetery has reinforced this law and its prohibitions and made them widely known to all participants.”
Arlington officials updated their statement Wednesday, writing, “In order to protect the identities of those involved, no further information regarding the incident will be released at this time.”
