Servicemembers and veterans 'stunned' at Trump betrayal: insider

Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot and Democratic congressional candidate from Kentucky,, told MS NOW anchor Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday that members of the United States armed forces are "stunned" at President Donald Trump's open contempt for and betrayal of them.

"I think one of the people that's purged was the last, literally the last general in Afghanistan, General Donahue," Wallace told McGrath when describing Trump's purging of high-ranking military officers to replace them with political loyalists. "So, I mean, we have purged people for being less than, who were the best of us. And I wonder what you think of sort of the zombie reaction to things like this."

McGrath described a military that is "stunned" at how Trump is treating them.

"I think many in the military are kind of stunned right now, as many veterans are," McGrath told Wallace. "We've never seen anything like this. Just to go back to Trump's comments [saying it would be acceptable if Iran attacked Los Angeles and San Diego, both of which have large numbers of active soldiers and veterans] —I mean, if folks are thinking this is a joke, that's sick."

She added, "The USS Lincoln battle group is out of San Diego. We're talking about that in the news as wanting to help those sailors. And then we have the commander-in-chief joke around about Iran attacking them, and he wants that. It's just that there's so much here, Nicolle, and it also just doesn't make sense. His comments, to those of us in the military—we're looking at this like, you can't simultaneously tell Americans and the military, 'Hey, we defeated Iran,' and then the next day say, 'Iran can just go take out an American city.' Which one is it?"

McGrath concluded, "I mean, the stuff just doesn't make any sense anymore. So I think a lot of people are in shock, especially at the higher levels within our ranks."

At a separate point in the conversation, Wallace pointed out that "anyone in America that's seen 'Top Gun' understands this. It's not just an attack on San Diego, and it's not just an attack on what is known by anybody that knows anything about California and Southern California, and that there's so much active-duty military around there. What is your sense about Trump's, really, not track record of indifference to the men and women of the military?"

McGrath responded by pointing out the diverse backgrounds of people in the military.

"The military is made up of folks from all different walks of life and different political beliefs," McGrath told Wallace. "And more and more, when you read transcripts of what Trump says, when you listen to what he says, there's a lot of indifference, as you mentioned. And I think that more and more people are sort of waking up to that. I wish it would have happened years ago."

She added, "And also, he started this war. He doesn't know how to get out of it. This is a war he never should have started. It's unpopular. And that's why you're seeing him try to scare Americans right now. He's trying to justify this war that he started by throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks."

Trump has previously come under fire when multiple officials who worked for him said that he referred to soldiers as "losers" and "suckers" because they were willing to risk their lives for a cause other than their own interests.

Retired Army Col. Jack Jacobs, a veteran who saved 14 allied soldiers' lives who were pinned down in the Vietnam War despite being wounded himself, said in 2020 that Trump's comments "cut deeply."

"It cuts deeply,” Jacobs said. “Let me just say at the outset that the president has said so many things that are fallacious, outrageous, hyperbolic, that they now fail to shock anymore. Maybe [GOP consultant] Rick Tyler is correct and this will resonate and maybe it will resonate not just with military people but with the large majority of Americans who support the military, who understand what the military does and what the military has been doing since the inception of the country for our freedom.”

He continued, “But the president has said so many things that are outrageous that now it almost fails to shock, and it would be interesting to see what is the fallout, if any, from this. I’ve spoken to a lot of people who work directly for the president who reiterate exactly what Jeffrey Goldberg said in that article, who said the president has no respect for people in uniform, no respect for people who have served and, most significantly, does not understand the notion of being part of something that’s larger than yourself.”

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