If Trump’s military support slips too much, he’ll be the ‘loser’
In response to credible reports that President Donald Trump has derided fallen U.S. soldiers as “losers” and “suckers,” the least I could do in protest was to change my Twitter photo.
And so I did. Gone is my currently aging face, replaced by the much younger me, dressed up in my Class A U.S. Army uniform for graduation from basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in early 1970.
I am following the recommendation of a much younger Army vet, David Weissman, a Palm Bay, Fla., resident who served two tours in Afghanistan as an assistant chaplain.
I didn’t even get that close to combat during my two years in service, but I am grateful to those who did.
Four years ago, as he recently wrote in The Forward, he was “your average, conservative, pro-Israel Jewish American” who “was also a full-fledged, unapologetic, red-hat wearing Trumper.”
Back then, Weissman appreciated President Trump’s support of the military in word and policy. Today? Not so much.
“I recommend all veterans to use their Military pics as a profile pic to let Trump know how many people he has offended by calling fallen soldiers losers and suckers. #NewProfilePic,” he tweeted on Thursday. Last time I looked, it received more than 118,000 “likes.”
I’m with you, bro.
I know that Trump angrily denies the account in The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg, the magazine’s award-winning editor-in-chief, which cites unnamed sources. The story says Trump called U.S. soldiers injured or killed in war “losers,” questioned the country’s reverence for them and expressed confusion over why anyone would choose to serve.
“It’s a fake story and it’s a disgrace that they’re allowed to do it,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. He insisted that he respected the troops and denounced Goldberg’s sources as “lowlifes.”
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