Former President Donald Trump visited the Arlington National Cemetery on Monday for a wreath-laying ceremony. The ceremony was honoring 13 US Troops who were killed in Kabul, Afghanistan during a suicide bombing.
During the visit, some of the members of Donald Trump’s campaign team had an altercation with officials at the cemetery. Trump’s campaign has said that the situation arose because a photographer was stationed in a section of the cemetery where they were unauthorized. Steven Cheung, one of Trump’s campaign spokesmen, said that the cemetery official was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode” and was trying to “physically block” team members.
The cemetery said that they “can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.” They also released the following statement: “Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign…Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”
Chris LaCivita who is one of the top Trump campaign advisers, released his own statement where he called the cemetery official “a disgrace” and that he “does not deserve to represent the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.” He also denied the idea of any physical confrontation, stating, “We are ready to share footage if any defamatory allegations arise.” Despite this, they did not release any footage after multiple requests.
