Donald Trump has shared a letter of support from some of the families of soldiers who died in the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan, after he was confronted for campaigning at an event marking the attack’s third anniversary.
The letter, signed by six family members of the soldiers who died in Afghanistan, said Trump and his team “conducted themselves with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity for all of our service members.” The former president shared the statement on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday night.
Arlington National Cemetery released a statement on Tuesday confirming that it had an altercation with Trump’s team. “We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed,” the statement read.
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“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” it added. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”
But the family members said they had given Trump’s team prior approval to bring a campaign photographer and videographer into the event, “ensuring these sacred moments of remembrance were respectfully captured.”
“We are deeply grateful to the president for taking the time to honor our children and for standing alongside us in our grief, offering his unwavering support during such a difficult time,” they wrote.
Trump’s campaign also denied the incident, which was initially reported by NPR as a “verbal and physical altercation.”
Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign spokesman, said there was “no physical altercation as described.”
“We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” he said. “The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”
Cheung later posted a screenshot on X, formerly Twitter, which appeared to show a media permission form stating that Trump was permitted to have a photographer and videographer outside the main media pool.
The wreath-laying ceremony was commemorating an attack outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 26, 2021, during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The incident resulted in the deaths of 13 American service members and approximately 170 Afghan civilians, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
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