Will Trump’s military insult derail his campaign?

Americans view the military as a sacred institution and reports that President Donald Trump called the country’s fallen soldiers “losers” can potentially cost him the November election, says a political analyst from Baltimore.

President Trump is vehemently defending himself against allegations, first reported by The Atlantic magazine and independently verified by the Associated Press and FOX News, that he privately disparaged veterans for their military service.

The Atlantic article cited unnamed sources who said Trump described American Marines who died in World War I as "losers" and "suckers" and recounted several other anecdotes of the president denigrating those in uniform.

Analysts say the characterization of Trump as a commander in chief who privately insults military veterans but publicly considers them an important part of his voting base is fraught with political risk ahead of the November 3 presidential election.

The following is the transcript of Press TV’s interview with Myles Hoenig:  

President ‘Bone Spurs’ is being undone by his own supporters. Fox News has been toying with the idea for quite awhile that the president is likely to lose and he is no longer the indestructible force he has presented himself to them for the last three and a half years. It is not that Fox News has integrity as a reliable news source or that what they report should be taken at face value.

In fact, every major news outlet has failed basic journalism when it comes to keeping a bias out of reporting and reporting what can be verified by independent sources. On that, whatever the Pentagon or the State Department says of issues overseas, all major media outlets report it as factual without checking. On domestic issues, their biases direct them to only cover what they want and not to investigate the ‘other side’ of an issue.

A third rail in American politics is Social Security. Touch that and your political career is over. At least it used to be. Democratic and Republican presidents and candidates, like Joe Biden, have long since attacked it without substantial pushback.

But there are two institutions, when attacked, sears into the heart of most Americans. That is the Postal Service and the military. We see what Trump is doing to the former, and his actions are only supported by his crowd. But the military is viewed as sacred by many Americans and its war heroes and war criminals stand on a pedestal no one dares to knock down.

Trump took a lot of heat for his attack on the beloved sociopathic war criminal John McCain but that was seen more as an example of his crass behavior. Without acknowledging the harm he did to many people for that, he did try to make up for it by praising the military by calling for a national military parade, like done in France on Bastille Day, but this parade was more to show devotion to him, the dear leader, than any real praise for the armed forces.  His supporters are Okay with that.

What has touched a nerve to so many people, and especially his supporters who see the military as God’s army serving America’s interests, is to call soldiers who died fighting for what they believed were American interests ‘losers’, and those who serve in the military as ‘suckers.’

It is surprising that the support for the Fox reporter who verified the Atlantic story isn’t getting a full throttle backing from Fox News but neither is she being vilified by the network either. After Labor Day this issue will go away, but if it’s brought up again close to Election Day, and it would be stupid of the Democrats not to, many of his avid supporters will have second thoughts, as for many, this insult is deeply personal.

 

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