Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the third anniversary of a suicide bombing at Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members.
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Two members of Donald Trump’s campaign team got into a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery where the former president participated in a wreath-laying ceremony, NPR has learned.
A source familiar with the incident said the cemetery manager tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing a section where recent American victims are buried. The source said Arlington officials made it clear that only cemetery staffers were allowed to take photos or film in that area, known as Section 60.
According to the source, when the cemetery manager tried to stop Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, the campaign staff verbally abused the manager and pushed him aside.
Trump attended an event to mark the third anniversary of a deadly attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan as U.S. forces were withdrawing from the country; 13 U.S. service members were killed in the attack. Trump’s campaign has blamed President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, for the chaotic withdrawal.
In a statement to NPR, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung strongly rejected the idea of a physical altercation, adding: “We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory allegations are made.”
“The fact is that a private photographer was allowed into the premises and for some reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health issue, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team from a very solemn ceremony,” Cheung said in the statement.
The Trump campaign declined to make the images immediately available.
In a statement to NPR, Arlington National Cemetery said it “can confirm that there was an incident and a report has been filed.”
“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities at military national cemeteries, including photographers, content creators, or any other person participating for the purpose of or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the statement said. “Arlington National Cemetery has reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”
