WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump took his ordinary lies and political assaults to Arlington Nationwide Cemetery on Tuesday, making his Veterans Day remarks sound extra like a rally speech.
“We were going in the wrong direction for a period of time, but we’ve never been hotter than we are right now,” he claimed, however rising inflation and unemployment, whereas praising Home Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Chief John Thune for his or her “victory” over Democrats within the authorities shutdown.
“Congratulations to you and to John and to everybody on a very big victory. We’re opening up our country. Should have never been closed. Should have never been closed,” he mentioned.
He lied about tariffs — “We’ve taken in trillions of dollars in tariffs” ― and vitality prices — “Energy prices are way down.”
In actual fact, Trump’s commerce battle towards the remainder of the world has generated about $130 billion in new tariffs so far, and each dime has been collected from Individuals. None has been “taken in” from different nations. Gasoline costs are about the identical as they have been a 12 months in the past, whereas electrical energy prices are dramatically increased.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI by way of Getty Pictures
Whereas parts of Trump’s speech featured conventional Veterans Day fare — thanking service members for his or her work and sacrifice — massive sections of his 21 minutes behind the lectern have been his typical rambling, meandering remarks that, at factors, have been tough to grasp.
“When I see other countries celebrating Victory Day, I watched it. I watched U.K., I watched Russia; they were selling ― celebrating — Victory Day, World War II, and I said, ‘We got to have a Victory Day.’ Nobody even talked about it in our country. But from now on, we’re going to be celebrating Victory Day for World War I, for World War II, and frankly, for everything else,” he mentioned, referring to a “proclamation” he signed declaring that Veterans Day may also be referred to as Victory Day.
In actual fact, the US already marks two “victory” days, one every for the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany in Might 1945 and of imperial Japan three months later.
He then bragged about giving the Division of Protection his most well-liked nickname, the Division of Struggle. “Under the Trump administration, we’re restoring the pride and the winning spirit of the United States military. That’s why we have officially renamed the Department of Defense back to the original name, Department of War. And remember, we won World War I, we won World War II. We won everything in between. We won everything that came before. And then we brilliantly decided to change the name of this great, this great thing that we all created together, and we became politically correct. We don’t like being politically correct, so we’re not going to be politically correct anymore.”
Trump’s declare of “officially” renaming the Pentagon is fake. Congress named it the Division of Protection after World Struggle II, and solely Congress can rename it.
Trump in 2018 infamously refused to go to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in the course of the 100-year commemoration of the top of World Struggle I as a result of it was raining and he didn’t wish to destroy his hair. The location is the resting place for 1,800 U.S. Marines who died in 1918’s essential Battle of Belleau Wooden. Trump’s then-chief of employees John Kelly, a former Marine normal, went with then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford.
(White Home officers claimed on the time that Trump couldn’t go as a result of his Marine Corps helicopter couldn’t safely fly within the rain – an assertion belied, but once more, on Sunday, when Trump flew Marine One by means of rain again to the White Home from a soccer recreation.)
Kelly additionally confirmed that Trump had referred to as those that serve within the army “suckers” and “losers” for his or her sacrifice. Trump himself prevented army service by claiming “bone spurs” in his heels in the course of the Vietnam Struggle.
