Trump steps into yet another controversy after making insulting remarks about U.S. troops to a group of senators at the White House.
Moyers & Company published an article earlier this week discussing the fact that “gibberish is the White House’s new norm,” writing that
“Now we have a president who, when he speaks, spatters the air with unfinished chunks, many of which do not qualify as sentences, and which do not follow from previous chunks. He does not release words into a stream of consciousness but into a heap. He heaps words on top of words, to overwhelm meaning with vague gestures. He does not think, he lurches.”
Trump seemed to embody that analysis on Tuesday while speaking at a reception for Republican and Democratic senators and their spouses in the White House East Room.
Trump began his remarks stating that he had just concluded a “long call” with Defense Secretary James Mattis.
We just had a call — long call from General Mattis. And, John, I know, is very happy to hear that, but he knows better than anybody, we’re doing very well in Iraq. Our soldiers are fighting and fighting like never before, and the results are very, very good. So I just wanted to let everyone know. [emphasis added]
As Fox News Insider concedes, “the comment about U.S. troops ‘fighting like never before,’ drew immediate criticism, including a sharp rebuke from Montel Williams, a Marine and Navy veteran.”
Williams tore into those remarks, calling them “careless,” adding that “This President has put a relatively small number of troops on the ground in Iraq – in stating these troops are ‘fighting like never before’ he necessarily implies that the troops previously in Iraq over the past decade plus somehow weren’t fighting hard, or worse that they were somehow derelict.”
He went on to admonish Trump:
Mr. President, you signed up to be the Commander in Chief, HAVE YOU NO DECENCY SIR. Thousands of troops paid the ultimate price on Iraq while you were on the NY social circuit and hosting a reality TV show. Many more thousands came back badly wounded, more still came back with invisible injuries they may well bear for life. Their sacrifice, their blood, sweat and tears in battle, should not be denigrated by a television star, now President whose only military experience was dodging the draft.
Even worse – and in keeping with the analysis by Moyers & Company – it appears that Trump has absolutely no clue what he is talking about.
As CNN reports, “It wasn’t clear what fighting Trump was referring to in his remarks, which appeared unscripted. The US combat mission in Iraq ended in 2010 and American troops are now in the country primarily to advise and assist Iraqi forces.”
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was pressed on the matter during a Wednesday press conference but offered little insight, simply remarking that Trump was proud of the work of U.S. troops.
“I think the progress that’s being made in Iraq and the fight against ISIS is going extremely well and he’s proud of it,” Spicer said, adding that Trump does not actually believe that U.S. troops are engaged “in combat” in Iraq.
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