President Trump talks to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base after returning from Latrobe, Pa., last night. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP
President Trump, the White House and the Trump campaign all mobilized last night to push back on a damaging article from The Atlantic, by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, reporting that the president "has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members."
What they're saying: When Trump landed at Andrews Air Force Base last night after a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump told reporters: "To think that I would make statements negative to our military and our fallen heroes, when nobody's done what I've done ... It is a disgraceful situation by a magazine that's a terrible magazine — I don't read it."
Here's a passage from Goldberg's article:
On Memorial Day 2017, Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery ... He was accompanied on this visit by John Kelly, who was then the secretary of homeland security, and who would, a short time later, be named the White House chief of staff. The two men were set to visit Section 60, the 14-acre area of the cemetery that is the burial ground for those killed in America’s most recent wars.
Kelly’s son Robert is buried in Section 60. A first lieutenant in the Marine Corps, Robert Kelly was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan. He was 29. ...
[A]ccording to sources with knowledge of this visit, Trump, while standing by Robert Kelly’s grave, turned directly to his father and said, "I don’t get it. What was in it for them?"
General Kelly declined to comment to The Atlantic.