Following Donald Trump’s speech before the American Legion’s National Convention yesterday, Hillary for America released a collection of quotes in which Trump has been disrespectful of veterans, the military, and their families. The full release is below.
From firing employees because of their military service, to lying about donations to veterans’ charities, to scamming veterans through Trump University, here’s a refresher on some of Trump’s most offensive statements and positions regarding veterans and military families:
Trump has attacked veterans and military families, including a Gold Star family.
NYT: Donald Trump criticizes Muslim family of slain U.S. soldier, drawing ire. “Donald J. Trump belittled the parents of a slain Muslim soldier who had strongly denounced Mr. Trump during the Democratic National Convention, saying that the soldier’s father had delivered the entire speech because his mother was not “allowed” to speak.”
BuzzFeed: Trump: My position on keeping terrorists out is what bothered Khizr Khan. “Trump has faced backlash from Republicans and Democrats over his remarks but has continued to attack the Khans.”
And when Trump was done, his campaign and allies continued the attack.
Stephen Bannon: “No, we’re not going to get off Khizr Kahn, we’re going to stay on this guy. We’re going to stay on this relentlessly.”
NH1: A top trump veterans adviser tells NH1 News Khizr Khan has ‘disgraced his son: “State Rep. Al Baldasaro, a top New Hampshire adviser to Donald Trump on veterans issues, says that Khizr Khan has ‘disgraced’ his son and ‘used him as a political pawn.'”
Trump has also profited from ripping off veterans and military families, and his businesses have fired employees because of their military service.
- Huffington Post: Trump Institute fired veteran for ‘absences’ after he was deployed to Afghanistan. “Wright was deployed to Afghanistan in the spring of 2007. When he came home to his job, the Trump Institute fired him. “All of your absences,” Wright’s boss at the Trump Institute told him, had forced the company to “reevaluate your position with the Trump Institute.” It is a violation of federal law to penalize an employee for absences caused by military service.”
- CNN: Iraq war veteran claims Trump University fired her for serving in the Army Reserve. “Corrine Sommers, who worked for Trump University for five months, sued Trump University after she was dismissed in October 2007. She reached a confidential settlement in that case. But she later alleged that she was fired because of her military service in a November 2012 deposition she gave in a federal class action suit that accused the school of fraud. That deposition was unsealed this week.”
- Huffington Post: Third Veteran Dumped By Trump Because Of Military Service: “Yet in at least three cases, Trump’s companies have either fired, or refused to hire, military reservists because of the time commitments demanded of them by their service in the armed forces.”
- TIME: What the legal battle over Trump University reveals about its founder. “The records indicate, for example, that Trump University collected approximately $40 million from its students–who included veterans, retired police officers and teachers–and that Trump personally received approximately $5 million of it”
- CNN: 40-year Navy veteran scammed out of $26,000 by Trump University
- The Daily Beast: Trump University’s star student: ‘it was a con.’ “’It was a lie,’ said Maddings, an ex-marine now 32, who told The Daily Beast that he racked up around $45,000 in credit card debt to buy Trump University seminars and products. […]'[Trump University] was a con. I’m 25-years-old, barely making $3,000 a month and they told me to increase my credit limit. I just maxed out three credit cards and I’m supposed to be able to qualify for loans to buy real estate? Those stupid principles have led me to borrow $700,000 of other people’s money and lose it all. I’m still paying off some of that debt to this day.”
Trump has also repeatedly lied about donating to veteran charities.
- Mother Jones: Donald Trump tried to cheat veterans out of $1 Million. “Donald Trump tried to cheat veterans out of $1 million: “ I want to make this simple. Here’s what Donald Trump did recently: He pledged $1 million to help veterans; he tried to weasel out of it for months and hoped no one would notice; and when he finally got caught, he ponied up grudgingly and insulted the reporter who caught him.”
- Washington Post: Four months after fundraiser, Trump says he gave $1 million to veterans group.“Trump also said he had never actually promised that the fundraiser had raised $6 million. ‘I didn’t say six,’ Trump said. In a video of the event, Trump tells the crowd at the end, ‘We just cracked $6 million! Right? $6 million.’ When asked about that quote, Trump said, ‘Well, I don’t. I don’t have the notes. I don’t have the tape of it.’”
- CNN:Trump’s website boasts that he gave $1 million to the 1995 Nation’s Day Parade, but the event’s organizer said that’s about three times more than he actually gave.
- CNN:“After signing a deal to launch his brand of vodka, Trump went on CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’ in 2006 and described the venture, saying, ‘I’m giving the money to charity.’ […] the vodka company sent multiple press releases stating it would donate sales proceeds to the Walter Reed Society, a charity supporting programs at Walter Reed Hospital. The charity’s administrator tells CNN the donations amounted to about ‘a few hundred dollars.'”
Trump also attempted multiple times to kick disabled veteran street vendors off Fifth Avenue, near the home of Trump Tower.
- NYDN:“Do we allow Fifth Ave., one of the world’s finest and most luxurious shopping districts, to be turned into an outdoor flea market, clogging and seriously downgrading the area?”
- NY Post: Trump to Mayor: Boot fifth ave peddlers: “Whether they are veterans or not, they should not be allowed to sell on this most important and prestigious shopping street… I hope you can stop this very deplorable situation before it is too late.”
Trump signaled he wants to privatize the VA and that he opposed the post-9/11 GI bill.
- WSJ:Donald Trump adviser signals plan to change veterans’ health care. “While short on details, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee would likely push VA health care toward privatization and might move for it to become more of an insurance provider like Medicare rather than an integrated hospital system, said Sam Clovis, Mr. Trump’s chief policy adviser, in an interview.”
- Asked point-blank in May if he supported the Post-9/11 G.I., which has benefitedover 700,000 veterans and their family members, Trump said no.
He’s disrespected prisoners of war like Senator John McCain…
- Trump on Sen. John McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured, ok? I hate to tell you.”
- BuzzFeed: Trump: I Don’t Regret McCain Comments, My Poll Numbers Went Up
…compared his own “struggles” to the true sacrifices of those who serve our country…
- Trump said that despite never serving our country, he “always felt that I was in the military” because he was sent to a military-themed boarding school.
…and after a veteran even gave Trump his coveted purple heart to which Trump responded:
Ultimately, Trump has shown he is completely unfit to serve as commander in chief.
- Last year, Trump downplayed the dangers of war with modern technology, claiming that if an armored Humvee is hit with an explosive, our soldiers just “go for a little ride upward and they come down.”
Trump said earlier this year that our military is a “disaster.” Later on, at a campaign rally in Delaware, he went as far as to say that our military is in “shambles” and that it needed rebuilding.
For all the latest, follow our Scheduled Events page and follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Also, be sure to subscribe to the campaign’s official Podcast, With Her.
News Source: The Washington Post
Hillary Clinton Speeches 