‘A Complete Disgrace’: Trump Sparks Outrage After Breaking Protocol at a Ceremony, and His Outrageous Claim About the Dead Has Everyone Seeing Red
President Donald Trump is facing a growing backlash over a bizarre tribute to the latest American military personnel who lost their lives in his unapproved and deadly war on Iran.
Shortly before heading to the dignified transfer ceremony at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday, Trump astonishingly put words in the mouths of the dead soldiers.
“We’re going to Dover, some of you are going with us, to honor our heroes. And they are indeed great heroes, actually,” the president said to reporters before boarding Air Force One, ABC News reported.
Then he paused before making a startling claim that “all” U.S. casualties from his deadly war on Tehran shared his goals for launching a military attack with no strategy, objectives, or endgame.
“They said, and all of them said very strongly, ‘We can’t let, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he nonsensically alleged.
Angry social media users quickly lambasted Trump for what critics call his continued falsehoods. Opponents also say not even fallen U.S. troops are safe from Trump’s constant gaslighting.
“He paused because he knows he’s full of s–t. He had a morality gut check on the spot and failed,” a Thread user observed.
Another sarcastically posted, “’As he took his final breath, the soldier whispered: ‘Iran can never have nukes…’ gurgle, gurgle … ‘Make sure they pass the SAVE Act.’ A true patriot’s last stand.’”
This commenter used just one word to describe Trump’s astounding claim: “Disgusting.”
With the latest four deaths at a U.S. military base in Jordan after an Iranian attack last weekend, 18 American troops have now died since Trump launched the war on February 28, and hundreds more have been injured.
Trump first said the war was about regime change and the Islamic State’s ballistic weapons program. Within a week of the first shots, he changed that explanation for the attack to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, insisting they were within days of having a nuclear bomb, a line he has stuck to that now for months.
However, critics say it’s impossible to know for sure because Trump crowed for months last summer that he had annihilated the country’s nuclear facilities in a 12-day bombing campaign last June. And former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard admitted during congressional hearings earlier this spring that Tehran was still months, if not years away, from building a nuclear weapon.
But Trump’s claim that fallen soldiers told him they supported his war wasn’t the only shocking incident at the dignified transfer ceremony, when the nation’s war dead are flown home and are solemnly and respectfully received by the president, administration officials, and families.
In a video showing Trump and officials on the tarmac at the back end of the plane carrying the remains of the four soldiers, Trump is the only one who refused to bow his head as the four transfer cases were brought off the plane.
“He can’t bow his head because he’d fall over. What a complete disgrace,” an X user stated.
Others agreed. “Awe. Give the little guy a break he wasn’t raised to understand respect.”
Another poster was furious. “This phoney patriot, this draft dodging pos who never misses an opportunity to inappropriately salute, doesn’t have the decency, the compassion to appropriately bow his head. He’s a disgrace to every military service member, every front line responder, everyone who serves.”
This one chimed in, “Omg! I was literally screaming at the TV…….bow your head you POS! DISGUSTING ORANGE BLOB!”
This isn’t the first time Trump has broken protocol at a dignified transfer ceremony. Back in early March when the first casualties from his war on Iran arrived at Dover, Trump shockingly showed up wearing a baseball cap from his own merchandise line paired with a bright blue suit rather than the traditional black.
He has also called the nation’s war dead “suckers” and “losers,” according to a 2018 report in The Atlantic when Trump was in France to honor 1,800 marines who died during a battle near Paris during World I.
As for Trump’s ongoing quagmire in Iran, tensions escalated again between the two countries almost two weeks ago. Now Trump is trading daily bombing attacks with Iran, which is in turn striking out at its neighbors, widening the war in the Middle East.
Now, Trump is threatening to go after Pickaxe Mountain, another Iranian supposed nuclear site where the Israeli government is claiming the Islamic Republic moved nuclear materials deep underground last fall, according to ABC News.
“We’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” Trump told reporters again this week, after making the threats repeatedly before.