A veterans group has slammed Donald Trump’s self-congratulatory tweet Monday as the “most inappropriate” Memorial Day comment ever made by an American president.
Trump boasted about unemployment rates and the economy in his tweet and said that dead veterans would be “very happy and proud” about what he considers his accomplishments. (Both the jobs numbers and the economy began markedly improving during the Obama administration.)
VoteVets, which says it represents some 500,000 veterans and their families, bashed as “appalling” the president’s self-promotion as well as his decision to wish families of fallen veterans a “happy” day. The progressive group was also furious at the Republican Party’s effort to essentially fundraise off Memorial Day by offering a 25 percent discount on official Trump campaign merchandise ― “Use Code: Remember.”
Many individual veterans and family members of those who sacrificed their lives in service piled on the president on Twitter as well. Actor Mark Hamill scoffed at Trump envisioning his approval rating among the dead.
The president has been nicknamed “Cadet Bone Spurs” by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran, because he obtained five draft deferments during the Vietnam War, including one for “bone spurs.”