'President speaking like a 10 year-old': Former RNC chair blasts Trump's Memorial Day post
U.S. President Donald Trump salutes, during the annual National Memorial Day Observance in the Memorial Amphitheater, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., May 26, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
President Donald Trump observed Memorial Day by writing an all-caps social media post attacking his enemies. And one former head of the Republican National Committee (RNC) thought the post was in particularly poor taste.
"HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY," the 47th president of the United States wrote in the 172-word post.
During a segment on MSNBC, panelists slammed Trump for both the social media post and for his West Point commencement speech in which the man married to a model 23 years his junior warned graduates against marrying "trophy wives." Trump also took time to assail diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, which MSNBC host Alicia Melendez said was disrespectful to the significant number of military veterans who were not born in the United States.
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"There are an estimated 45,000 immigrants actively serving in our U.S. military. That means that there are about 5% of our veterans who are foreign-born," Melendez said. "So you want to tell the story about who we are, about the way we love this country, about the service we render, then tell a complete story."
Michael Steele – who led the RNC between 2009 and 2011 — lamented both Trump's remarks and what it means for an American public that elected Trump to a second term in the White House with a slim popular vote majority. The former RNC chair and ex-Maryland lieutenant governor also opined: "When you start your 'happy Memorial Day' message with a reference to an to a former president as scum ... anything you say after that is futile. It's worthless."
"I mean, what what is the point? Have Americans sunk to the point where that is what moves them and energizes them? A president speaking like a 10 year-old?" He added.
"I have a 10 year-old and he does not talk like that," MSNBC panelist Symone Sanders-Townsend said. "His vocabulary is leaps and bounds than from what we see coming from the president."
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Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
