Trump Demands Biden Remove Ad of Him Calling Dead Soldiers ‘Suckers’ and ‘Losers’ - The former president said only a “psycho” or a “very stupid person” would’ve made such statements.

  • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    5 months ago

    Follow up ad:

    Trump: “only a “psycho” or a “very stupid person” would’ve made such statements.”

    Trump: *insults dead troops

    Trump: “only a “psycho” or a “very stupid person” would’ve made such statements.”

    Trump: *insults POWs

    Trump: “only a “psycho” or a “very stupid person” would’ve made such statements.”

    Repeat ad nauseum for every stupid arms services quote (or any other quote) the dumb idiot has said.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    In fairness to Trump (there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write…)

    ““He said I stood over graves of soldiers and I said: ‘These people are suckers and losers,”

    That’s technically correct. He did not say those things in public.

    Edit I watched the ad, it does not specify that Trump said these things in public, just that he said them which is true.

    He said them privately to staff members.

    Confirmed by Trump’s former Chief of Staff, John Kelly:

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/john-kelly-confirms-trump-privately-disparaged-us-service-members-vete-rcna118543

    But my favorite quote out of all this is the one that barely gets mentioned:

    https://www.axios.com/2023/10/02/trump-troops-fallen-soldiers-john-kelly

    Trump saying at a 2017 Memorial Day event in Arlington National Cemetery: “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

    Trump is ENTIRELY transactional. The idea that good men would fight a war for their country purely because it’s the right thing to do escapes him entirely.

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      “What was in it for them?”

      Sounds like a perfectly reasonable question to me… far more reasonable than simply assuming the people who perpetrated the US’s colonialist mass-murder campaigns in the third world was simply “good men” (supposedly) “doing the right thing.”

      Good job making Trump sound more rational than you, hero.

      • CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        5 months ago

        This take just baffles me… you can disapprove of a war, and still respect people willing to put their life on the line for something they believe is right. Even in war, opposing sides have a long history of showing their enemy a certain amount of personal respect, even though they clearly disagree about something to the point of killing each other over it.

        Your take is just condescending and unempathetic. You can respect someone for sacrificing themselves without agreeing with them about what they’re sacrificing themselves for. Regardless, it shouldn’t be hard to see how someone fighting to depose an infamously brutal dictator (Iraq) or a fundamentalist regime that stones women for wanting a divorce (Afghanistan) can believe that they are doing something good.

        • masquenox@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          5 months ago

          and still respect people willing to put their life on the line for something they believe is right

          Apply your bullshit logic to the Waffen-SS or the KKK, then. Go on… I’ll be waiting for you right here.

          Your take is just condescending and unempathetic.

          Really, genius? I guess this must be the first time you’ve ever confronted the idea that not all people who experience warfare are mindless zombies willing to die for whatever cause the rich people (or you) told them they should die for? You and the rest of the shitlib hive mind on here are hysterically cramming onto the jingoism train simply to own Trump without realizing what a self-own that is turning out to be.

          infamously brutal dictator (Iraq)

          Are you talking about the “infamously brutal dictator” in Iraq that the US helped into power? That the US helped to deploy chemical weapons in his war with Iran? That one?

          a fundamentalist regime that stones women for wanting

          Are you talking about the “fundamentalist regime” that only exists thanks to the massive support the US provided to these very same fundamentalists back in the 80s together with their fundamentalist allies in Pakistan? That “fundamentalist regime?”

          Good job, hero - you’ve highlighted why we should all be asking, “What was in it for them?”

          • CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            5 months ago

            Ok, I’ll try to make this simple for you: I can hold respect for a combatant that puts their life on the line in an effort to do something they believe is making the world a better place, rather than for personal gain.

            The KKK is immediately excluded, because there was/is little to no sacrifice being made by those lynching others. The same goes for SS soldiers running a concentration camp. I was quite clear in pointing out that what demands respect is the act of putting your life on the line to protect or help others.

            As for who put those regimes in place: That is completely irrelevant as to whether you can have respect for an individual who sees the atrocities committed by the regime, and believes they are doing good by fighting it. I have a hard time thinking that a soldier in Afghanistan is thinking a lot about who put the Taliban in power, or what they personally stand to gain from the fight when they decide to go there.

            • masquenox@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              5 months ago

              Ok, I’ll try to make this simple for you:

              You already have - you will happily endorse some of the world’s most vilest people as long as they saluted a piece of colored fabric (preferably the one you worship) before doing so.

              There is absolutely no further simplification required.

              The same goes for SS soldiers running a concentration camp.

              So you are perfectly ok with them as long as their their victims was free-range? I wonder what excuses you will come up with to glorify your vaunted drone operators who perpetrate terrorism while drinking Starbucks or your CIA operatives who pay proxies to do all the rape, murder and torture for them?

              That is completely irrelevant

              It fucking absolutely isn’t - you want to wax lyrically about people dying (supposedly) to “defend their country” from the very same people said country created and helped into power. Asking questions like, “what’s in it for them?” is a far more rational response to that than appealing to propagandistic Hollywood Heroism tropes… as you are doing at the moment.

              • CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                5 months ago

                Now you’re just coming off as disingenuous. So that I won’t need to repeat myself, just read my comments and try to figure out for yourself where you can find backing for what your accusing me of instead of putting words in my mouth and purposefully misinterpreting my comments or taking individual phrases out of context.

                Take your time, I won’t be waiting up.

                • masquenox@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  5 months ago

                  Now you’re just coming off as disingenuous.

                  You coming face to face with the true implications of your own beliefs does not equate to any disingenuity on my part.

                  War is not “honorable” combatants facing off against each other in a sterile environment as a lot of military historians try to purport - it’s slaughter. The vast majority of it’s victims aren’t even combatants. When you pretend that your preferred group of war criminals “respecting” the “other side” actually matters, are you including all the dead people that couldn’t fight back and therefore do not deserve any of this rarified “respect” of yours? Or are they just uninteresting externalities and “collateral damage” that doesn’t fit into the militaristic tropes your head has obviously been filled with?

              • ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                5 months ago

                lol spicy

                also: bwahaha! you think “liberal” is a put down of some kind? like caring about other people is something to be ashamed of? What kind of egocentric narcissistic psychopath are you?

                • masquenox@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  5 months ago

                  like caring about other people is something to be ashamed of?

                  Did you liberals suddenly start caring about anything except preserving your precious status quo? When?

          • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            After reviewing their comment history, I think Masquenox has strong controversial opinions and a bellicose attitude, but is not a troll.

            • JacksonLamb@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              edit-2
              5 months ago

              After reviewing their modlog history, I think Masquenox displays a level of emotional incontinence that is effectively the same as trolling.

              • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                5 months ago

                lol putting that up on the shelf with ‘verbal incontinence’, I like it.

                I do set a line between ‘cantankerous’ and ‘troll’ more leniently along the annoyance scale than others. I say let the dork be a dork, not everyone has social skills.

                • JacksonLamb@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  5 months ago

                  I do see what you mean. I think when a dork engages in repeated personal attacks they cross the line for me regardless of their intent.

                  It’s a philosophical question akin to Baudrillard’s “simulate a robbery” idea.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          This take just baffles me… you can disapprove of a war, and still respect people willing to put their life on the line for something they believe is right.

          A Toast to the Troops… All the troops. Both Sides.

          You can respect someone for sacrificing themselves without agreeing with them about what they’re sacrificing themselves for.

          RIP to Sgt. Rufus “Baby Ears” McGuffin. He died doing what he loved. Ripping the ears of babies and putting them on a big necklace that he would wear around camp.

          • masquenox@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            5 months ago

            He died doing what he loved. Ripping the ears of babies and putting them on a big necklace that he would wear around camp.

            Just another “All American Hero,” eh?

          • CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            5 months ago

            “All the troops, both sides” is half my point when pointing out that enemy combatants historically have often held respect for each other.

            Yes, I respect a combatant fighting for something they believe in that’s bigger than themselves, people not fighting for personal gain, but because they want to give someone else a better life. That’s regardless of what side they’re on- even if they’re on the side I’m actively trying to kill.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              5 months ago

              enemy combatants historically have often held respect for each other.

              Torturing POWs to death as a form of respect

      • 𝔼𝕩𝕦𝕤𝕚𝕒@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        Trump doesn’t understand the question because he doesn’t understand doing things for the betterment of anyone but himself.

        For most of history, you didn’t ask “what’s in it for me” when the king/prime minister/ The Church/ or President came asking (country irrelevant). That’s a relatively new luxury due to perspective of the digital age and disagreements with (the US) Government due to transparency.

        For most of history “what’s in it for you” was actually getting fed and clothed better than the average peasant. Serving the king was what was in it because you didn’t have to sleep in pig shit and milk the cows every morning. You’d actually get fed for mealtimes instead of playing the barter game all summer and fall just to have enough food to store in salt barrels for winter. And even better, if you tickled enough enemy hearts with your pointy stick there WAS some land and money for you, provided you survived.

        Some countries through history also revere their veterans (with actual respect and benefits) so military service itself was the honor. While I understand it’s a dramatization -the beginning of Disney’s Mulan is a great display of it. Her father is it is '60s or '70s and has already served once and has a bad leg. The emperor sends out a call for war and the guards show up in town. When they call his name he sets aside his cane and picks up the summons because that’s what you did. It is what was expected of him and he did it without complaint.

        • JacksonLamb@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          5 months ago

          You’re arguing for both sides of the argument.

          First you argue that people obeyed rulers because they didn’t question authority.

          Then you argue people obeyed rulers for their own benefit and material gain.

      • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        5 months ago

        He’s not. He’s just an asshole. He can read social cues, he just doesn’t care. That’s why it can be tiring to deal with people with autism. They’re not assholes, but they act similarly.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      Trump is ENTIRELY transactional. The idea that good men would fight a war for their country purely because it’s the right thing to do escapes him entirely.

      In fairness, you only need a bunch of good men to fight a war purely because it’s the right thing in order to counter the bad men fighting a war in order to do a bad thing.

      Maybe if Trump’s attitude had been more common in Berlin in the 1930s, or more common in the US during the 1960s or in Israel or Russia during the 2020s, we’d have skipped a few nightmarish atrocities without having a bunch of good men perish in the process.

      • El Barto@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        5 months ago

        You are cherry-picking and going off rails.

        But to humor you, how far back do you want to go?

        Because the U.S. was founded on atrocities committed against the people who already lived in North America.

        And the U.S. funded operations to topple legitimate governments in Central America, a time in which a lot of good people died because of it.

        So, don’t paint the U.S. as “the good guys who should listen to Trump.”

        But again, this is entirely a red-herring.

        The truth of the matter is, Trump is a piece of shit who doesn’t respect the people who sacrifice their lives for his safety.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          So, don’t paint the U.S. as “the good guys who should listen to Trump.”

          There are plenty of good people in the US who have resisted the Trumpian brand of ethnic nationalism and the capitalist death drive. And quite a few of them died for their country (or, at least, their friends and family and neighbors). But they’re not the ones we celebrate on Memorial Day. Not officially, anyway.

          The truth of the matter is, Trump is a piece of shit who doesn’t respect the people who sacrifice their lives for his safety.

          Trump was never in any danger. His father was a fascist who idolized the Italian and German dictators running roughshod over Europe. If they’d somehow managed to marshal enough fossil fuel and methamphetamine to do a reverse D-Day and put Axis soldiers onto the Atlantic seaboard, the Trump family would have been the first in line to great them as liberators.

          Why on earth would he be celebrating the Roosevelt Democrats and Eugene Debbs Socialists who were out firing on his ideological allies and business buddies on the other side of the Atlantic?

          Trump wasn’t going to pay homage to the allies of Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin. You think he wants to bend the knee for a bunch of tankies?

          • El Barto@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            5 months ago

            Trump is compromised. He is with the tankies. Because the tankies own him.

            Edit: downvoted by tankies.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              5 months ago

              He is with the tankies.

              We talking about the college leftists protesting Israel or the police riding around in military surplus?

          • Crikeste@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            “You can never criticize bad things because good things exist, too!” ☺️

    • Venia Silente@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      The idea that good men would fight a war for their country purely because it’s the right thing to do

      Since when is it the right thing to do? 93% of wars, particularly ones where the US is involved, are about making rich people richer.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    The former president said only a “psycho” or a “very stupid person” would’ve made such statements.

    I mean, he’s right…

  • YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    Trump would fill his pants if he was ever in any kind of war zone. But you know that’ll never happen because he’s a coward.

  • cultsuperstar@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    What did he say about John McCain? “I like people who weren’t captured.”

    Trump has never given a shit about the military or veterans. I’m surprised at how many veterans love him.

    • Taalen@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      The military doesn’t attract the brightest minds.

      Reminds me of a joke that did the rounds shortly after Finland joined Nato.

      Finnish general: “You know, it’s difficult, we have mandatory military service, but around 15% are unfit for service”

      Other Nato generals: “That 15% is where we have to recruit from”

      • JohnnyH842@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        5 months ago

        I don’t know I think that’s kind of a shitty thing to generalize about. Not sure where your located, but atleast here in the US there are plenty of folks who join the military at a young age to get themselves out of bad situations and try to correct the course of their life. Obviously there are a lot of people who join because of some dangerous nationalistic or racist ideals, but that structure and purpose can help some folks.

        • NecroParagon@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          5 months ago

          Yep that’s right. I have friends who could’ve done many things with their lives but they value our armed forces and joined up instead. It’s something I hold in high regard. It’s not a washout only ensemble.

    • Neato@ttrpg.network
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      Biden’s team should shoot back with that: “I like people who weren’t convicted.”

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      5 months ago

      If Hillarys people wouldn’t have pushed trump so hard, it would have been McCain vs Hillary, McCain would have easily won…

      It’s insane how much better shit would be today if Hillary wouldn’t have gambled or cared about literally anything more than being the first woman president.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          You’re right.

          I was thinking he did but I guess it was Jeb! And Ted Cruz as the Republican establishment picks in 2016.

          • kescusay@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            And Hillary Clinton didn’t push Trump. Prior to Russia making him much more likely to win via a concerted and effective propaganda effort, she was probably happy to be facing him, but that was long over by the time he became the nominee.

  • NutWrench@lemmynsfw.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” 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.

    source, The Atlantic, September 3rd 2020

    • retrospectology@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      This is pretty much how narcissists think in a nutshell. It’s essentially a mental disability that makes them incapable of understanding why they would care about people, especially people who can’t adore or praise them (i.e. dead people). Emotional one-way street.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”

      Arlington was property seized from Robert E. Lee and chartered to house dead Union soldiers after the civil war.

      So it sounds like it was filled with winners, at least for a little while.