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Reader: I ask this question with all seriousness for the simple reason that I wasn't there to hear it. Did President Trump really call our fallen soldiers suckers and losers?
FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: We weren’t there to hear Trump’s alleged remarks, either. All we can provide is information that is publicly available about what he reportedly said.
This issue first came up in 2020, when the Atlantic wrote about it, citing unnamed sources. The magazine wrote that Trump made his remark about “losers” when he declined to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in November 2018, and his remark about “suckers” during that same trip. That magazine wrote:
In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.
In October 2023, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly – who was on that trip and visited the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery -- gave a statement to CNN that seemed to confirm those remarks.
CNN published Kelly’s statement. Here is a relevant excerpt:
“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France."
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