Military expert horrified by Trump's July 4th treatment of Gold Star families

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a Fourth of July rally, marking the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 4, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci

A former professor at the US Naval War College denounced President Donald Trump’s 4th of July speech for showing disrespect to Gold Star families, or immediate relatives of soldiers who died on active duty.

“Oh my God,” wrote The Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols on the social media platform X. “Trump pays tribute to the Gold star families and then says ‘we have medals for you backstage’ like they are failed contestants on a game show.”

The Republican leader has a long history of controversial behavior toward Gold Star Families. In May, while attending an Arlington Cemetery wreath-laying ceremony to honor them for Memorial Day, Trump left the Gold Star Families standing in the rain while he was protected from the elements. Looking “exhausted, unsteady, and vacant,” according to Republican strategist and former President George W. Bush adviser Steve Schmidt, Trump’s appearance proved to be “the perfect metaphor for this vulgar and degraded age in American life,” and in the process offered a snapshot of “the truth of Trumpism better than any poll, speech or slogan ever could.”

He added, “It was a weekend of humiliation for the country. Abraham Lincoln described the war dead as those who gave ‘the last full measure of devotion.’ Donald Trump has spent his political life mocking devotion, degrading sacrifice and insulting honor. He mocked John McCain for being captured. He called dead Americans ‘losers’ and ‘suckers.’ He turned Arlington into a campaign backdrop. He transformed Memorial Day into another spectacle centered on himself, his grievances and his vanity.”

Trump’s handling of that event was similarly derided by Heather Delany Reese, a political commentator who once supported Trump.

“If Donald Trump cared even a little about the meaning of Memorial Day, he would have spent the morning honoring the fallen,” Reese commented at the time. “He would have spoken about the young men and women who never made it home.” Instead the president “spent his morning posting hatred from his phone.”

The president also attracted Gold Star Family ire in January 2024. The veterans’ rights group VoteVets released an ad condemning Trump for referring to veterans who died in combat as “suckers” and “losers,” as well as for describing Gold Star Families who protested such language as “vile” and “shills.”

Trump's rhetoric, these families argued, "just underscores the outright hate Donald Trump has for those who serve and those who've lost loved ones in war."

"It is a dark day in America when the Republican party's presumptive nominee, who never served himself and never had family who wore the uniform, sends attack dogs after Gold Star families in this way," their statement added.

The president even controversially went after the family of Khizr Khan, who died in combat during the Iraq War, during his 2016 presidential campaign. Specifically he claimed that the deceased soldier’s mother was not allowed to speak because of the family’s Muslim religion, although he provided no evidence of this.

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