Trump campaign team releases video from Arlington Cemetery after alleged altercation

The Trump campaign released a video on Wednesday taken at Arlington National Cemetery, two days after an alleged altercation in which a cemetery worker tried to enforce the campaign’s policy against taking photos and videos near the graves of U.S. soldiers killed in recent years, according to defense officials.

The campaign video posted on TikTok shows former President Donald Trump at a third-anniversary ceremony on Monday to commemorate 13 U.S. soldiers killed in a suicide attack in Kabul during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. In the video, Trump is seen at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, walking among marble headstones as soft guitar music plays, and Trump can be heard criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal.

Defense officials said a confrontation arose during Monday’s event when a cemetery employee warned Trump campaign staff that while they were allowed to take photos and videos in the cemetery, they were not allowed to do so in Section 60, the final resting place of many U.S. soldiers killed in recent conflicts, a defense official familiar with the situation said Wednesday. The order was given to the campaign team before the memorial event and again at the site because campaign-related activities are restricted by law there, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

According to the defense official and campaign staff, Trump had been invited by some of the grieving families to a memorial service marking the deaths of 13 U.S. soldiers.

“What was absolutely clear was: Section 60, no photos and no video,” the defense official said.

A person familiar with the matter told NPR, which first reported on the incident on Tuesday, that Trump campaign staff shoved and verbally assaulted a cemetery official when he tried to stop them from taking photos and videos in Section 60.

But Steven Cheung, communications director for Trump’s campaign, said there was “no physical altercation as described,” that the campaign had been given permission to bring a photographer, and that they were “prepared to release footage” to defend themselves against “defamatory allegations.”

Cheung also claimed, without providing evidence or details, that “an unnamed individual, who was clearly suffering from a mental disorder, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”

In response to a request for comment about an alleged altercation during Trump’s visit, Arlington National Cemetery issued a statement saying, “We can confirm there was an incident and a report was filed.” The organization did not provide further details. It was not immediately clear to whom the report was filed, but the incident occurred on U.S. Army property. Army headquarters did not immediately respond to requests for clarification Tuesday evening. The Army Criminal Investigation Division said it had not been notified of the incident.

Allison Jaslow, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said in a statement that Arlington National Cemetery is a sacred place where partisan political activity should be taboo.

“Any aspiring elected official, especially one who aspires to be commander in chief, should be aware of this fact,” Jaslow said. “Nor should they hide behind members of our community to justify their policies on such hallowed ground.”

Visitors have long taken photos of graves at Arlington National Cemetery, considered hallowed ground for the U.S. military, but in a statement released Tuesday, defense officials drew a distinction between the actions of a campaign and those of ordinary visitors.

“Federal law prohibits political campaigning or election-related activities at Army National Cemetery military cemeteries, including photographers, content creators, or others present there for the purposes of or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the cemetery’s statement said. “Arlington National Cemetery has underscored and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”

The defense official familiar with the matter supported the cemetery employee, saying that while the campaign was allowed to bring a photographer into the cemetery, it was “correct” to remind campaign employees that different rules apply in other parts of the facility.

The Trump campaign did not immediately release the footage it claimed to have.

On Tuesday evening, the campaign released a statement from five relatives of killed U.S. soldiers, who said they had given Trump’s official photographer and videographer permission to accompany the cemetery visit on Monday and wanted the event to be “respectfully captured.”

“The President and his team have behaved with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity toward all of our troops, especially our beloved children,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the liberal veterans group VoteVets demanded that Trump fire those who clashed with cemetery staff.

Trump visited the cemetery on Monday, the third anniversary of an Aug. 26, 2021, suicide attack that occurred outside Kabul airport as the United States was conducting an evacuation from Afghanistan and killed 13 American soldiers and about 170 Afghans. The operation was launched after the U.S.-backed government in Kabul fell to the Taliban several months after President Joe Biden ordered the full withdrawal of U.S. troops after 20 years of war.

As president, Trump brokered a prisoner exchange with the Taliban and set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, but he criticized the final withdrawal during Biden’s presidency, saying the execution was botched.

The Republican presidential candidate took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and spoke to relatives of those killed in the Kabul bombing, while his campaign team criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“This month marks the three-year anniversary of the most embarrassing moment in our country’s history,” Trump said in a video he posted that day on his Truth Social account.

The allegations come at a time when Trump has presented himself as a champion of the military but is also facing scrutiny for his comments about veterans. Trump’s former chief of staff, John F. Kelly, has publicly accused him of calling American war victims “suckers,” an accusation Trump denies.

Trump also came under fire this month for saying an award for civilian service to society is “much better” than one for military personnel, since many of the award winners were wounded or killed in combat. And during his first presidential campaign, Trump clashed with a Gold Star family that publicly criticized him and offended many veterans with his attacks on former Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Trump said McCain was “not a war hero” and trivialized his capture and torture in Vietnam, declaring, “I like people who weren’t captured.”

Top campaign adviser Chris LaCivita said in a statement Tuesday that Trump went to Arlington National Cemetery at the invitation of Gold Star families who lost loved ones during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He added: “For a despicable human to physically prevent President Trump’s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is disgraceful and undeserving of representing the hollowed (sic) grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.”

LaCivita, who was wounded in combat as a Marine, led the Republican effort to criticize Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s accounts of his military service. He had previously led the Republican campaign to criticize John F. Kerry’s military service during the 2004 election campaign.

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Hau Chu contributed to this report.