Donald Trump staff clash with official at Arlington National Cemetery

Members of Donald Trump’s campaign team and an official at Arlington National Cemetery confronted each other during the former president’s visit to the cemetery on Monday, the military cemetery said in a statement Tuesday.

The altercation was prompted, according to Trump campaign officials, by the presence of a photographer in a section of the cemetery where US troops who were killed in recent wars are buried.

The cemetery released a statement saying that federal law prohibits political campaigning or “election-related” activities within Army cemeteries, including by photographers.

An official with the cemetery tried to “physically block” members of Trump’s team, Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. Cheung added that the cemetery official was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode” and that the campaign was prepared to release footage of the confrontation to support its account of the clash. The campaign did not provide that footage after several requests.

Chris LaCivita, a top Trump campaign adviser, added in a separate statement that the cemetery official was “a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.”

Cemetery officials did not provide their own account of the encounter, saying instead that “there was an incident, and a report was filed.”

The cemetery added that it had “reinforced and widely shared” to the Trump campaign the federal laws prohibiting campaign activities by photographers “or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign.”

News of the altercation was first reported by NPR.

VoteVets, the liberal veterans group, called on Trump to fire the members of his team involved in the confrontation.

Trump had visited the cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony honoring 13 U.S. troops who were killed in a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the United States’ withdrawal from that country three years ago. Trump has blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the bombing and America’s chaotic withdrawal, and repeated his attacks on the subject in campaign events after his visit to the cemetery.

Trump had laid three wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery on Monday morning, the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing. Two of the wreaths were for Marines killed: Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover and Sgt. Nicole Gee. A third was dedicated to all 13 troops killed.

Trump was accompanied for the laying of the wreaths by family members of the slain troops, as well as Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews and Cpl. Kelsee Lainhart, two Marines who were injured in the Abbey Gate attack. Vargas-Andrews lost his right arm and left leg in the attack, and Lainhart was paralyzed in the attack and now uses a wheelchair.

Trump then accompanied the families and Marine veterans to Section 60 of the cemetery, reserved for those recently killed in America’s wars abroad, including at Abbey Gate.

That part of Trump’s visit was private and closed to the press. Cheung, the Trump campaign spokesperson, pointed to a screenshot of an email that he argued gave the campaign photo access to Section 60. That excerpt, however, says that “former President Trump may have an official photographer and/or videographer outside of the main media pool,” but it does not suggest Trump’s photographer was given special access.

The campaign also shared text messages from family members of the veterans consenting to having Trump’s campaign media attend the event at Section 60. The campaign did not provide evidence that the cemetery gave them permission to have a photographer at Section 60 — which the cemetery said in its statement would be a violation of federal law.

Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox, a Republican — who visited the cemetery with Trump — shared a photo from Section 60 on social media, with Trump and others in a “thumbs-up” pose around the grave of Hoover.