This Friday a very controversial article entitled Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’ appeared in The Atlantic, It starts out “The president has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades ,,,” The reaction to this report has been particularly intense because the acts described were witnessed by some of the president’s top aids. The problem is that this reporting does not reveal the identities of those who were present during these three incidents.
- While deciding whether to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, Trump said to senior staff members ‘Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.’ It is also said that in a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ for getting killed.”
- These same attitudes were displayed in an incident at the death of Senator John McCain., When this decorated prisoner of war was given an honorable ceremony. it is claimed that Trump said “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” According to witnesses, Trump became furious when he saw flags in the nation’s capitol lowered to half-staff. He said to his aides “What the fuck are we doing that for? The guy was a fucking loser,”
- On Memorial Day 2017 Trump visited the Arlington National Cemetery. He was accompanied by John Kelly, who was Secretary of Homeland Security at the time. While Kelly was paying respects to his own son’s grave, Trump said to him “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
The reporting of Trump’s insensitive and crass nature should not surprise us. Still if these remarks were are true, it means that the supreme commander of our armed forces does not value the sacrifices made by our service members in the past, present or future.
The Hill, a Washington D.C, publication, asserts that the sources of these accusations should be named. The president has denied that that he ever made these remarks and then demeaned the reputation of the magazine that published them. “The Atlantic Magazine is dying, like most magazines, so they make up a fake story in order to gain some relevance.”
Regardless of how similar these remarks may be to things Trump has said in his rallies and press conferences, he Hill staff reminds us that until the sources of the accusers come forward, we must keep an open mind. However that precaution shouldn’t stop from us from examining the character and motivations of the author using Dayology. Is Goldberg telling the truth?
Jeffrey Goldberg was born on a Wednesday in the zodiac sign of Virgo. The informed planet Mercury rules his Virgo INNER and OUTER selves. As a doubled Virgo Goldberg’s life is focused on information and communication. At it’s worst Virgo finds fault with innate flaws and criticizes without mercy. At it’s best Virgo promotes the pursuit of perfection. We owe our social well-being to Virgo’s insistence on efficient functioning and exacting accountability.
According to Wikipedia our subject “… attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he was editor-in-chief of The Daily Pennsylvanian. While at Penn he worked at the Hillel kitchen serving lunch to students. He left college to move to Israel, where he served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a prison guard during the First Intifada at Ktzi’ot Prison, a prison camp set up to hold arrested Palestinian participants in the uprising.” “Goldberg returned to the United States and began his career at The Washington Post, where he was a police reporter. While in Israel, he worked as a columnist for The Jerusalem Post, and upon his return to the US served as the New York bureau chief of The Forward, a contributing editor at New York magazine, and a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine.[7][8][9] In October 2000, Goldberg joined The New Yorker.”
Goldberg has served as the Editor in Chief of The Atlantic Monthly since 2016. He is the author of Prisoners – A story of Friendship and Terror. His awards for reporting include 2003 National Magazine Award for Reporting for coverage of Islamic terrorism and the 2005 Anti-Defamation League Daniel Pearl Prize. He is also the winner of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists prize for best international investigative journalist; the Overseas Press Club award for best human-rights reporting; and the Abraham Cahan Prize in Journalism.
Jeffrey Goldberg is doing his life work. It is doubtful that this journalist would sully his pristine reputation by offering anything less than the unvarnished truth. In times to come, hopefully the sources will step forward and show him to be a trusted voice in this political wilderness.
