The "Suckers" & "Losers" Lie
President Trump did not call American War dead "suckers" and "losers"
(President Trump delivering remarks in 2018, in the rain without an umbrella, honoring American soldiers who lost their lives in WWI, the day after he supposedly refused to give remarks in the rain at another cemetery.)
One of the most persistent, widespread and nastiest lies spread about former President Trump is the false claim that he supposedly called American veterans who died in action overseas “suckers” and “losers.” Trump supposedly refused to give a speech honoring Americans killed in action at a cemetery in France in 2018 because the rainy weather would “muss his hair.” The lie originated with an article published in The Atlantic shortly before the 2020 Presidential election. Let’s take a closer look at this Fake News hit piece.
On September 3, 2020, The Atlantic published an article entitled, “Trump: Americans Who Died in War are “Losers” and “Suckers.” The article reports on comments which President Trump supposedly made two years before in 2018 during a visit to Europe:
The Atlantic article, which was (of course) based on four anonymous “people with firsthand knowledge” claimed the official story about the 2018 visit to Aines-Marne American Cemetery being canceled due to weather was not true. The Atlantic claimed President Trump actually refused to visit the cemetery because “he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain” and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead. The article claims President Trump referred to the American war dead in the cemetery as “losers” and to 1,800 marines who died at Belleau Wood as “suckers.” See here.
Numerous Fake News Media outlets breathlessly reported the story at the time.
As is often the case, the original anonymous report was supposedly quickly “confirmed” by other Fake News Media through their own anonymous reports.
The Associated Press ran an article the same day claiming its own anonymous sources confirmed The Atlantic report in an article entitled, “Report: Trump disparaged US war dead as ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’.” The AP claimed an anonymous “senior Defense Department official” and a “senior Marine Corps officer” supposedly “confirmed” the report.
The Washington Post published its own article the following day (September 4, 2020) entitled, “Trump said U.S. soldiers injured and killed in war were ‘losers,’ magazine reports.” As “confirmation” of The Atlantic’s report, the WAPO article quoted an anonymous “unnamed former senior administration official” who claimed President Trump would refer to veterans and soldiers as “losers.”
The Guardian published its story on the issue the following day, September 4, 2020, in an article entitled, “Trump called American war dead ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ report claims.”
NBC San Diego, on September 4, 2020, outdid itself and sought out out veterans to ask their thoughts on President Trump’s alleged comments. See “Local Veterans Respond to Trump’s Comments Calling War Dead ‘Losers,’ ‘Suckers:”
Of course, Democrat politicians, like then Democrat Presidential candidate, Joe Biden, and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), herself a double amputee and veteran, had to chime in and disparage President Trump. See The Guardian.
Three years later, in October 2023, former Trump Chief of Staff John Kelley supposedly “confirmed” the story to CNN in October 2023.
Then, in August 2024, the Harris/Walz campaign revived the story with a post on social media platform X.
What is the truth?
President Trump did not visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018 because poor visibility due to the weather made transporting the President by helicopter on Marine One unsafe and the distance of 90 to 120 minutes each way on the roadways made getting the President out of France quickly too difficult in the case of an emergency, according to the President’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton and multiple other sources.
Additionally, virtually every single person who was with President Trump that day confirmed he did not ever make any such disparaging comments about American veterans (that day or any other), as is demonstrated below.
Nevertheless, the fact that genuinely lays The Atlantic story bare as pure Fake News is THE VERY NEXT DAY, November 11, 2018, nearly two years before The Atlantic wrote this despicable article, President Trump spoke at Suresnes American Cemetery IN THE RAIN AND REFUSED TO USE AN UMBRELLA. The video of this speech may be seen at C-Span. (A screenshot of that video is depicted at the start of this article.)
If President Trump refused to go to a cemetery on November 10, 2018, because American war dead were “suckers” and “losers” and because he might “muss his hair,” would he give a 10 minute speech THE VERY NEXT DAY standing in the rain (without an umbrella) at yet another cemetery where American war dead were laid to rest? Of course not.
ACTUAL WITNESSES AND EVIDENCE DEBUNK THE FAKE NEWS:
You may recall, former National Security Advisor John Bolton was decidedly unhappy after President Trump dismissed him. John Bolton is no friend to President Trump. Bolton wrote a memoir about his time in the Trump Administration and attacked President Trump in the book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir published in 2020. BBC News published an article outlining the “Ten biggest claims” from Bolton’s book. See here. Anyway, the point is John Bolton was hostile to President Trump when Bolton published his book in 2020 (and remains hostile still).
In his book, Bolton wrote about the cancellation of the trip to the American cemeteries and monuments during the trip to Europe in 2018. Bolton wrote:
“The weather was bad, and Kelly and I spoke about whether to travel as planned to the Chateau-Theirry Belleau Wood monuments and nearby American cemeteries where many US World War I dead were buried.
Marine One’s crew was saying that bad visibility could make it imprudent to chopper to the cemetery. The ceiling was not too low for Marines to fly in combat, but flying POTUS was obviously something very different. If a motorcade was necessary, it could take between ninety and a hundred and twenty minutes each way, along roads that were not exactly freeways, posing an unacceptable risk that we could not get the President out of France quickly enough in case of an emergency. It was a straightforward decision to cancel the visit but very hard for a Marine like Kelly to recommend, having originally been the one to suggest Belleau Wood . . . Trump agreed, and it was decided that others would drive to the cemetery instead.”
(The references to “Kelly” are to former Trump Administration Chief of Staff, General John Kelly. This is important, because clearly Bolton confirms General Kelly recommended the trip be canceled, not that President Trump canceled it.)
A good article outlining how John Bolton’s book, which was actually published before the hit piece, debunks The Atlantic’s claims was published on September 4, 2020, in the The Federalist:
BOLTON’S BOOK and JOHN KELLY’S TOP AID REFUTE KELLY’S STORY:
Former Trump Administration Chief of Staff John Kelly is the only person to go on the record to arguably corroborate the “suckers” and “losers” story. (This “corroboration” occurred three years after the story ran and five years after the alleged events occurred. Readers will note, in the CNN interview where Kelly supposedly “corroborated” the report, Kelly does not say if he heard the comment himself or if he is quoting media reports.)
As noted above, Bolton’s book refutes the statements made by John Kelly to CNN in October 2023 (to the extent ANYONE claims Kelly’s statements “confirm” this ludicrous story), as Bolton confirms Kelly himself recommended against giving the speech at the cemetery, contrary to his later comments to CNN. (Remember, the original story in The Atlantic claimed Trump canceled the speech because he did not want to “muss his hair” for a bunch of “suckers” and “losers.”)
Former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Zach Fuentes, a top aid to John Kelly, further refutes both the Fake News story and John Kelly’s supposed “confirmation” of this nonsense. In an interview with Breitbart when the story originally broke in 2020, Fuentes said:
(General Kelly would not have tolerated that, no matter what CNN reported three years later.) See Breitbart:
Fuentes himself informed the President of cancellation of the trip and confirmed the trip was cancelled due to weather. He also confirmed the President did not call any veterans or war dead losers.
Official documents obtained from the United States Navy through the Freedom of Information Act by Jason Leopold, an investigative reporter at Buzz Feed News, confirmed the Navy canceled the trip to Aisne-Marne Cemetery due to rain. Leopold posted this to his X social media account on September 4, 2020. See American Thinker:
The Washington Examiner published an article on September 3, 2020, including on the record statements from White House officials denying the claims in The Atlantic hit piece. The article included a redacted U.S. Marine Corps email confirming the trip to the cemetery was cancelled due to bad weather:
Numerous Trump Administration officials who were actually with President Trump the day the trip to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery was cancelled in 2018 confirmed the President was not happy about the cancellation and that President Trump never said anything disparaging about American veterans or American war dead (not on that day or any other).
Stephen Miller, a senior advisor to President Trump, was with the President on this trip and was quoted in the article, “The President deeply wanted to attend the memorial event in question and was deeply displeased by the bad weather call” and called The Atlantic’s story a “despicable lie.” See here.
Trump Administration Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino confirmed he was with the President and that the trip was canceled due to weather. He further confirmed President Trump made no such disparaging comments about American veterans and called The Atlantic story “100% lies.” See Breitbart.
Former White House Press Secretary and current Governor of Arkansas, Sarah Sanders was also with President Trump that day in France and confirmed The Atlantic story is “. . . total BS. I was actually there and one of the people part of the discussion – this never happened.” She went on to state she was “disgusted” by the attack on President Trump. See American Thinker:
Another member of the Administration, Jordan Karem, was present that day in France and confirmed the story was not true. He commented on X “Again, this is 100% false. I was next to the president the whole day!” See here.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellog was Vice President Mike Pence’s national security advisor at the time. He posted to his X account on September 3, 2020 and confirmed “The Atlantic story is completely false. Absolutely lacks merit. I’ve been by the President’s side. He has always shown the highest respect to our active duty troops and veterans with utmost respect paid to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice and those wounded in battle.” See X.
The United States Ambassador to France, Jamie McCourt, was also with President Trump that day in France and confirmed the trip to the cemetery was cancelled due to weather and that President Trump “. . . has never denigrated any member of the U.S. military or anyone in service to our country. And he certainly did not that day, either.” See Breitbart, September 7, 2020.
In addition, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, also confirmed President Trump never used such language to describe the American military or veterans and stated “I’m a veteran too. I care deeply about these young men and women. I watched the president honor them in every situation that I have been with him.” See Fox News.
First Lady Melania Trump weighed in on the issue stating, “The Atlantic story is not true. It has become a very dangerous time when anonymous sources are believed above all else and no one knows their motivation.” See Spectator World.
Former counsel to President Trump, Johnny DeStefano also disputed The Atlantic story, stating, “I was on this trip. The Atlantic bit is not true. Period.” See here.
Staff secretary Derek Lyons was with President Trump on the morning the cemetery trip was canceled. He too disputed the story and confirmed he never heard President Trump “. . . utter a disparaging remark, of any kind, about our troops.” See here.
Not only did former National Security Advisor John Bolton debunk the article in his book (before the ridiculous nonsense was published by The Atlantic), but after the Fake News story broke nearly two years later, Bolton denied it, stating, “I didn’t hear either of those comments or anything resembling them. I was there at the point in time that morning when it was decided that he would not go. It was an entirely weather-related decision and, I thought, the proper thing to do.”
A wonderful article about this particular piece of Fake News is the Spectator World article referenced above. It is worth a read:
This Fake News story follows the typical Fake News pattern. A Fake News peddler publishes a story based on anonymous sources. Other Fake News outlets supposedly “confirm” the story with their own anonymous sources. Then Fake News media and Democrat politicians parade around all over the Country acting like the story is true. When the verifiable facts demonstrate the story is complete hogwash (as in this case where independent witnesses, weather reports and government documents confirm the weather was poor and the trip to the cemetery was canceled due to weather, while eyewitness after eyewitness confirm the “suckers” and “losers” quote is not true), the Fake News outlet “stands by its reporting.”
Three years later when one single eyewitness with an axe to grind goes on the record to provide what might be mischaracterized as “confirmation” of the story, the Fake News Media says nothing about the other facts contradicting this “confirmation” and says little or nothing about the obvious bias of John Kelly. This entire “story” is not newsworthy to begin with, but if it were, any legitimate article or report about it would highlight the host of witnesses and evidence tending to show the report is untrue. In the end, this story is Fake News of the lowest order and, given the timing of it (just a couple of months before the 2020 election) and the scandalous nature of the story, was probably intended to influence the election.
(My new book Fake News Exposed: 25 of the Worst Media Lies about Conservatives, Guns, COVID and Everything Else is out at Amazon. You may also pick up a copy of one of my other books at Amazon as well.)