'Jaw-droppingly crass': Ex-army officer deems Trump 'enemy of everything we fought for'

Since Donald Trump's Monday visit to Arlington National Cemetery, several aspects of the former president's visit to the historic of over 400,000 of US service members have been widely condemned.

The Washington Post reported, "Pentagon officials were deeply concerned about the former president turning the visit into a campaign stop, but they also didn’t want to block him from coming, according to Defense Department officials and internal messages reviewed by The Washington Post."

In an op-ed published by MSNBC Thursday, former US Army officer Brandon Friedman submits that, "to combat veterans, Arlington National Cemetery has the same power that all holy places have. And that is why Donald Trump’s recent behavior is so repulsive."

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Friedman writes:

Trump was so eager to use Arlington’s Section 60 as a backdrop for a campaign event this week that he may have broken federal laws against politicizing the burial ground to do it. Trump’s staff also shoved aside a cemetery official trying to stop them. He even posed for a photograph over a U.S. Marine’s gravesite, grinning and giving a thumbs-up. The moment was jaw-droppingly crass and vulgar, as all of Trump’s are. It defiled sacred ground.

Encouraging "All Americans" to take Trump's actions seriously, the ex-infantry officer specifically urged veterans to "remember that Donald Trump’s behavior at Arlington National Cemetery this week epitomizes not only how he is a menace to the United States, but how he is an enemy of everything we fought for."

Trump "harbors deep resentment toward the military and those who’ve sacrificed in service," Friedman writes – possibly referring to the fact the ex-president has called veterans "suckers and losers."

Emphasizing Trump's reputation of serving only himself, the columnist adds: "Even when he poses with a family — as he did at Arlington this week — he only does so to enhance his campaign or his political prospects. Trump’s use for the military and our dead extends only as far as it suits him."

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Friedman's full op-ed is available here.