'White supremacist extremists will remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland'

September 9, 2020
CNN
Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

Surprise! Donald Trump has a credibility problem.

The US President is still raging about an article in The Atlantic that said he had skipped a trip to a World War I cemetery in France because he was afraid rain might mess up his hair. But claims that he called dead US soldiers “losers” and “suckers” sound exactly like the kind of thing he would say -- and after making more than 20,000 false or misleading claims in office, his denials are cheap.
CNN has corroborated some aspects of the story, including that the President spoke in derogatory terms about US soldiers who had been killed. His loyalists, like former spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, are taking to TV to defend the President -- but they've got their own credibility issues. Sanders, for example, has already admitted lying to the press. Officials and retired military brass who do have the gravitas to absolve Trump, like former White House chief of staff Gen. John Kelly, who lost a son in Afghanistan, have been pointedly silent.
It wouldn't be the first time that the 45th President, who skipped out of serving in the Vietnam War due to bone spurs, spurned American soldiers and even war heroes. His life in business and politics shows no ethos for public service and self-sacrifice, which is why parts of the Atlantic story ring so true: At Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, where more than 400,000 former service personnel are interred, Trump reportedly told Kelly, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” at his son Robert’s grave.
But what does this mean for the election? It’s hard to believe anyone in America is still undecided about whether Trump’s character quirks will sway their vote. Certainly, his fans will pass off the story as more “fake news." But Trump is trailing Joe Biden and with tens of millions of veterans and military families across the country, insulting the armed forces could hurt his chances in swing states, where a few thousand votes could decide the fate of the presidency.
And remember: Trump isn't just running to be President -- he will also be America's commander in chief if he wins a second term. In that case, he'll have some repair work to do across the river at the Pentagon.