By Michael Woyton
Elon Musk’s social media platform formerly called Twitter applied a “spam” or “unsafe” warning for a while on a posting published by the national news organization NPR about the campaign of convicted felon Donald Trump and his visit to Arlington National Cemetery.
A little background:
On Monday, the former president was at the national cemetery to commemorate the third anniversary of a deadly attack in Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of 13 service members, NPR reported. The attack took place during the disastrous withdrawal of troops, for which Trump blames President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
During the visit, Trump’s campaign staffers had a physical altercation with a cemetery staff over a violation of federal law prohibiting using military cemeteries for campaigning purposes, NPR said.
The Trump campaign released a video showing the presidential candidate laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and joining Gold Star family members at graves in a section of the cemetery — Section 60 — where recently departed military personnel are buried.
NPR reported that the Trump campaign “was not authorized to film or photograph in Section 60, and two campaign staffers “got in a physical and verbal altercation with the Arlington staffer” when she tried to prevent the filming.
While the family members said they gave Trump’s people permission to document the moment, they did not have the power to suspend the rules, Arlington officials said.
In response to the accusation of the altercation, the Trump campaign responded by saying the woman cemetery staffer was “mentally ill” and a “disgrace,” Mediaite reported.
The U.S. Army said the employee at the cemetery decided not to press charges against Trump’s staffers. The Army said she acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption.
The NPR article in question was published Thursday and is headlined “Army says Arlington National Cemetery worker was ‘pushed aside’ by Trump aides.”
A tweet by reporter Stephen Fowler said the former president shared a TikTok video that likely violates a federal law against using military burial grounds for campaign purposes.
At this writing, the article is no longer flagged as unsafe or spam, but readers have to wonder why Musk’s social media platform formerly known as Twitter would allow a media organization such as NPR to be treated that way.
Just because an article doesn’t please Trump or his trumpers is no reason to try to censor it.
And keep in mind that the convicted felon has seldom shown himself to be a fan of people who served in uniform. He famously called American war dead “losers” and “suckers,” Foreign Policy wrote, and has mocked “the very idea of service, sacrifice or discipline.”
None of this is lost on veterans.
On Second Thought 