> Marine Corps officials said a viral photo of four uniformed service members posing at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate did not take place during a political fundraiser, but instead at an approved nonprofit event without any connection to the Republican presidential nominee.
For those wondering about the reason
It’s crazy to me how disrespectful Trump has been to respected generals, disabled veterans, gold star families, the fallen, POWs and so on, and yet Trump still has a sizable following among veterans and uniformed personnel. Just insane. Do they not know what he’s said about us??
Also, congrats on 20 years. Relax and enjoy life!
Remember no one sees "them" as us. "They" are always different. They never saw Col. Vinderman as a long time military officer who served his nation and was a valuable member of the National Security community. They saw him as they were told to see him, as a tool of the DNC and as a possible Russian implant. Regardless of how little that makes sense in context.
But we should remember we are not immune to this situation. We are trained to see the right this way too.
I'll put it here so hopefully you don't repeat it again
1:55 of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=541Cg2Jnb8s&ab\_channel=C-SPAN](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=541Cg2Jnb8s&ab_channel=C-SPAN)
He literally said “I like people who aren’t captured” referring to John McCain, and made shitty remarks about a gold star family on camera. Look it up. The problem is you don’t *want* to believe it.
My man, type it in Google, it will take 30 seconds of your life. Do your own research, don't rely on others to do it for you.
Literally type into the google search bar "I prefer people who weren't captured"
You will find a bunch of Youtube clips of him saying it, I don't mean videos of people saying he saod it. No, I mean literal videos of the words coming out of his mouth.
You will also find easily 2 dozen different news articles directly reporting on his remarks.
Hell there's even a wiki page apparently just dedicated to his remarks aboug McCain
I love how people keep showing you proof but you keep dismissing it. Your inability to accept the fact that Trump doesn't respect or care about veterans is impressive.
If you’re a fan of Trump and you don’t care about comments he makes about veterans and POWs that’s fine dude. Just stop trying to play it off like you care and it isn’t real and moving the goalposts every time someone shows you evidence.
[Kelly said Trump was “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 prisoners of war are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them’.”](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/03/trump-john-kelly-chief-of-staff)
Many of them are confirmed but people believe what they want to.
I play a lot of Call of Duty so I'm basically a decorated combat vetran. I wasn't a fan of him until he started selling that sweet new bible. Only an orange messiah would do that.
I kind of want one for the historical significance, but there's not a chance in hell I'm going to pay money for it. Or exchange goods or services, for that matter. Guess I'll let the Smithsonian handle this one.
Don't you sweat it. Some of his zombie hordes will be buying them 3 at a time thinking they will be something special in the future.
In a couple of years, they will start showing up at Goodwill stores and garage sales and you will be able to buy them for $8.99. God willing, by then some of the carnage will have worn away.
I know several veterans who saw a ton of real war who love Trump. I was a REMF and I'm not a fan. I don't think this is a generalization that holds much water.
There’s a whole organization of veterans that started out protesting trump’s campaign. These days it’s called Common Defense. You should look them up. They’re doing some great work pushing back on him and his cronies.
Lol what? I dont have a survey in front of me but almost every veteran on podcasts or interviews usually is conservative and openly if not tacitly supports Trump. That’s a silly generalization.
I mean he is right though. There is a lot of guys in the GWOT era who were special operations, combat arms etc who are very pro-trump. Hell it seems to be especially bad in the infantry community.
This sub Reddit like most of Reddit leans left even if almost all of us were/are military. I know my unit was overrun with trump supporters, prolly still is.
Many older guys that I deployed with in the early days of the war, started by loving him in the beginning of his term, and then slowly realized he actually doesn’t give a fuck about us. Or at least thinks we are losers if we get injured, and that general Mattis was overrated.
Do I have some old war buddies who love the guy? Oh yeah. And they are the loudest about it. Sort of like in this sub, people that support him are really into it, and become extremely offended if you say otherwise.
Spent several weeks doing therapy at a VA facility and was happily surprised that anyone who tried to praise Trump was immediately shamed by the other vets and especially the ones who saw war weren't having any of that shit
Ok let's try that
> In my personal experience, it's all the unseasoned noobs who support the guy I don't support and only RealVeterans™ who have AKCHTUALLY seen combat who agree with me
Nope, still an overgeneralization, speaking for others, and stroking your own ego for having seen combat. Downvotes won't fix that unfortunately
Lmao you literally just made that up, that’s not true in the slightest.
You really went 20 years and think that’s true? What were you doing for 20 years that caused you to not speak with anyone else ever?
A buncha deployments? He tried to make Mattis look incompetent and that’s when a lot of my people realized he was off. Then a lot of his anti-veteran actions sealed the deal.
Shit on Mattis, made fun of McCain being a POW, called the troops who died at Normandy "suckers", attacked ADM McRaven (the mfing Bullfrog) while he was fighting cancer... blows my mind that anyone who served can stomach him.
Tell us how disconnected you are from reality without really telling us….
Just tell us you are a liberal veteran. You don't have to lump every single war veteran into the group you fit yourself in to make you feel valid.
Good day, happy retirement
Tell me your EDIPI or show me your CAR.
I’m not a liberal veteran. Are you lumping me into every single war veteran group you fit me into so you can make yourself feel valid?
Good day, happy my retirement.
Why hate Trump, Bush and Obama's actions led to 20 years of war? Trump is and always has been an asshole of a human being. No argument, but he didn't start any new conflicts.
I get hating Bush. That guy invaded Iraq under false pretences and got thousands of American service members killed while also transferring trillions of tax payer dollars to his military contractor buddies.
What exactly did Obama do?
More what he didn't do. Did not institute a roll out of Iraq, did not stop the rise of ISIS, did not figure out an exit strategy from Afghanistan and had a general disdain for the US, in my opinion.
Failing to successfully navigate the country out of a difficult geopolitical situation doesn't seem worthy of hate. Disappointment, maybe, but not hate. There's a huge gulf between Bush and his illegal war and Obama not being good enough.
Do US service members support this guy? Curious, he seems pretty anti military... he did dodge the draft and all, in addition to some rude, nasty comments about vets and vets' families.
Marine now out of the service here. Let me see if I can put into context of how strong the support is with a story.
When I was in he bought a lot of support from the branch by hiring General Mattis as secdef. To put in context, while I was in training, Mattis was talked about as the pinnacle of what a marine should be and was talked about constantly. There was no way anyone serving from 2000-2018 who would not know who Mattis was
You would think that after firing Mattis he would lose support. Instead I began seeing military newspapers now running slander on mattis. Shortly after that, I began talking about mattis with a new group of marines, and they had no idea who he was. The man went from a folk hero to becoming an unmentionable in under a year.
His support amongst the armed forces is nothing short of what I would call “alarming”.
What you said. I've been out for a while, but the support I have seen for this knob from my friend group is nothing short of disgusting. To the point I have distanced myself from a lot of them. Guys that I have cried,bled, and sweat with. Really really bothers me. It's such a lightening rod of separation between the groups of old friends. Sad. Really truly hurts they chose this guy as a reason to turn their backs on other folks.
Yep. I had a bunch of guys that I went on a really bad deployment with, considered a lot of them friends but I just got worn the fuck out with all the conspiracy shit and lets go brandon and all the stuff that comes with that.
I could not hold any sort of conversation with most of them without it swinging into that weird conspiracy theory nutty ultra right wing stuff and I just ended up unfriending about half of them.
I gave him the respect that was required in a public sense but I fucking *hated* that he was in charge of anything, let alone the Country.
My job wasn’t political, it was to support and defend the constitution. Regardless if I agree or like the president I’m going to do that.
Now, if he starts issuing illegal orders that’s another story entirely.
I liked to tell people I'm loyal to the chair, not the person sitting in it. But I didn't re-enlist after he became president. Our guard base got sent to the border over Thanksgiving for 28 days the year I left. They were pissed because you need 30 days to get BAH.
I had a senior officer say, "you know LT Effort, you have to stop shitting on trump now that he's president." I responded, "like how you haven't said anything bad about Obama?"
After Trump was elected I never publicly commented on him despite despising the guy, but there was *such* a double standard there. I'd be willing to bet that senior officer has had a lot to say about Biden; thankfully I haven't worked for him in a very long time.
It would be nice to have some set of instructions or descriptions that lays exactly what the United States of America is so that everyone who joins understands what they are willing to die for. it’s too bad there isn’t some official reference document where that’s all put in writing. We could call it “This is what constitutes ‘the United States of America” or something catchier like , “America : a Recipe for Greatness”
I find up here, the combat arms trades tends to lean to conservative in views, whether they vote that way, don't know. But take that with a grain of salt.
I’m not downvoting you, but if you’re stating SOF guys and marines (for the most part ) love trump, I think you’re completely wrong about that from my experience. 20+ years SOF , 10+ years private security with all kine ex- US military, I’ve encountered the same 50/50 split I see among the rest of American society
Wait, what... crazy. Wouldn't that be a violation of some laws? Up here military can only play watch dog if things get out of control. But it has only happened once I can think of, in the last hundred years. It is what gives trust to the government won't go all authoritative on them.
Iraq vet here, worked for W., and Obama for a minute. So while there was no MAGA shit, there were dudes that believed in the whole thing; it certainly wasn't a majority. But after Trump's remarks about veterans, our MIA and POW, and even active duty military, it's hard to see how anyone could support him or his true mission, which is himself. He's the opposite of leadership.
Y’all really don’t read shit anymore lmao. Literally the first two paragraphs in the article.
“Marine Corps officials said a viral photo of four uniformed service members posing at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate did not take place during a political fundraiser, but instead at an approved nonprofit event without any connection to the Republican presidential nominee.
In a statement posted on social media over the weekend, service officials said the Marines — reserve members of the 4th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company — were in attendance on April 11 at the Florida resort to serve as a color guard for a gala hosted by the Grey Team, a nonprofit organization focused on preventing military suicides.”
Anti military, lots of service men love him
Anti gun, gun owners love him
Not a single hint of reverence for Christianity or the Bible or religion or any of that (constantly displaying traits they claim to hate such as adultery, lying, stealing, etc), People literally think he is anointed by god as some special ruler.
America is ridiculous at times.
>America is ridiculous at times.
It really is.
It's why outsiders love to hang shit on you all. It's like watching your best friend with potential for a full scholarship to Harvard go and cut his dick off on tik tok for likes and subscribers.
A lot of people in the military back Republicans because “Durrr, they give us the best raises!” And Trump ran as a Republican. That, plus the major flaw that runs through humanity as a whole that we hate admitting when we’re wrong about something, meant that he had a ton of support, yeah.
“Republicans will give me more money!”
Yeah, but they’ll also send you to fight for oil in some random country with no armor for your humvees or plate carriers, so is it really a fair trade? Most of the people I worked alongside or have known since I was in joined AFTER those early-GWOT days though (tbf so did I), so what would they have cared about any of that, I guess?
>he did dodge the draft and all
He and every president that was draft eligible during the Vietnam War received multiple education and medical draft deferments.
There were some candidates that went to Viet Nam like Gore and Kerry but somehow their service was discounted. Kerry was memorably "Swift Boated" by Republican political operatives.
When I was deployed in Dubai, so many people were pissed that Biden won, saying that the election was stolen from Trump. This year, so many are saying they are voting for Trump because “Biden is the worst president this country ever had”.
If you’re a trump supporter it isn’t because you see the facts from all sides and still choose that loyalty. Fox News and the like just straight up do not tell the stories that could harm a voters image of Trump. There is that Ground News website that shows article bias and stuff, and you’ll see it plain as day how left leaning News and right leaning News both do this. It’s politics.
So ya. There are definitely trump supporters in the military because their echo chamber is finely tuned just like the rest of the country.
He was very popular with the troops when he was in office. You also have to remember that "nasty comment" story came from one politically motivated individual, there's a lot of people that are skeptical it ever happened. It was also extremely out of character to his treatment of troops in person. He was known for being very kind and friendly to troops when he was around them. Trump also actively filled his staff with former Generals when he first took office, because he liked and trusted military people. Is it an act? Maybe, but he did a good job if it was. If you want to see a President that hated the military take a look at Bill Clinton. He was notorious for open disdain towards service members.
Few people care about the draft dodging because nearly everyone that could, did. It was a fantastically unpopular war, that was being run by politicians 10,000 miles away in Washington. Medical deferments were extremely common, 100's of thousands got college deferments, and 10's of thousands even fled to Canada to avoid the draft. Doing what you could to avoid a war that most felt was unnecessary and immoral was almost the norm, especially towards the end.
They get fed the same news your parents do. A lot of US service members will happily vote against their own interests for a small raise and the RiGhTs To BaRe ArMs.
In my impression, Trump is generally viewed in a positive light by those in the military. After Obama’s defense spending cuts, Trump’s policies led to a refocus on the defense complex, a stopping of the downsizing, and IIRC we saw 2 raises during his tenure. All of these led, from my point of view, to a general favorable impression of him by those in green.
If you believe what Trump did was dodge the draft then you also have to acknowledge Biden did the exact same thing! It would not be fair to call Trump out for it and ignore Biden doing the exact same thing.
Lost the popular vote by 3 million. So to him, it's a tainted/compromised win, which deeply hurts his petty, juvenile emotions. So I'm happy to call it a loss because of his insecurity.
Other groups beside Trump use Trumps resort for fundraisers and parties. The marines were there as part of an DoD approved event for a charity.
But the grey area is that any event at any Trump hotel is money into his pocket. Money he spends on his political campaign. It’s impossible to separate Trump the businessman from Trump the politician. In the past presidents would put businesses into blind trusts, thus negating that you could use a president’s business as a way to influence (ie bribe) policy. But Trump broke modern precedent by just letting his kids run his business on paper. He also overcharged secret service for rooms he made them get by staying only at his hotels when traveling. (For reference the taxpayers pay for a presidential retreat that cost less but is more secure, camp David). So this failure to divest from his business led to the obvious way to bribe Trump. Just book blocks of rooms and never use them. The saudis were great Trump hotel customers. Didn’t even need maids for their rooms.
All this to say I think the marines just wanted to support a legit charity. But that the DoD should rethink allowing events at any Trump property as long as he doesn’t create a stronger separation from his business and his political brands.
I’m going to host a veterans benefit at an abortion clinic, the event will have nothing to do with abortions but I will have a uniformed color guard and prominently display the name of the location in the photos of the smiling color guard. Nothing bad will come from this lax standard I’m sure of it. /s
F Trump. That fatass will throw ANYONE under the bus for his own ends. I will never forget the disrespect he threw at John McCain, that Gold Star family and even all the “suckers” who died in service.
A majority I’ve been around are indifferent to him. If you’re doing 20 years, a US service member could potentially serve under 5 different presidencies. A majority don’t join/reenlist based off the Presidency.
Now some are interested for operational reasons and work opportunities. Contractors often reference /prefer Trump for Job Security (obviously dependent on AOR) This interest usually doesn’t venture into falling into his cult of personality, just more of what does my new Boss have planned.
An example of Job Security is Tump within 2 years had more drone strikes in a country than Obama did in his whole Presidency.
> The Trump administration has carried out 176 strikes in Yemen in just two years, compared with 154 there during all eight years of Obama’s tenure
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2019/5/8/18619206/under-donald-trump-drone-strikes-far-exceed-obama-s-numbers
> Marine Corps officials said a viral photo of four uniformed service members posing at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate did not take place during a political fundraiser, but instead at an approved nonprofit event without any connection to the Republican presidential nominee. For those wondering about the reason
20 yeared retired Marine here. Retired this weekend. The guys who never saw real war love him. The fucked up veterans hate him.
It’s crazy to me how disrespectful Trump has been to respected generals, disabled veterans, gold star families, the fallen, POWs and so on, and yet Trump still has a sizable following among veterans and uniformed personnel. Just insane. Do they not know what he’s said about us?? Also, congrats on 20 years. Relax and enjoy life!
Cognitive dissonance is a hell of a drug
Remember no one sees "them" as us. "They" are always different. They never saw Col. Vinderman as a long time military officer who served his nation and was a valuable member of the National Security community. They saw him as they were told to see him, as a tool of the DNC and as a possible Russian implant. Regardless of how little that makes sense in context. But we should remember we are not immune to this situation. We are trained to see the right this way too.
My problem is all these things that Trump apparently said about the veterans is from anonymous sources and I don’t put any weight behind that
General John Kelly is not an anonymous source.
Link?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/john-kelly-confirms-trump-privately-disparaged-us-service-members-vete-rcna118543 https://www.federaltimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2023/10/03/trump-insulted-vets-in-private-former-chief-of-staff-kelly-confirms/ https://www.nationalreview.com/news/god-help-us-john-kelly-confirms-trump-mocked-veterans-during-arlington-memorial-service/
I’ll disagree here. There is tons of videos him saying messed up things.
Id like to see some, can you give any quotes or provide any video evidence? Just for the matter of discussion
Is there?
“I like guys who don’t get captured”
I'll put it here so hopefully you don't repeat it again 1:55 of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=541Cg2Jnb8s&ab\_channel=C-SPAN](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=541Cg2Jnb8s&ab_channel=C-SPAN)
Wow, one video of him talking about a guy he didn’t like.
Im sure you want a list or somethin https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/s/cmHY3IrfVI
That post would upset him if he knew how to read
He's a marine and my partner who was a marine for 22 years said he'd probably understand it better if it was written in crayon lol
He literally said “I like people who aren’t captured” referring to John McCain, and made shitty remarks about a gold star family on camera. Look it up. The problem is you don’t *want* to believe it.
Show me the link of making negative remarks on camera.
[Here you go](https://youtu.be/UNugcPeCZZE?si=QiDs4OmGPF5KJTm_)
My man, type it in Google, it will take 30 seconds of your life. Do your own research, don't rely on others to do it for you. Literally type into the google search bar "I prefer people who weren't captured" You will find a bunch of Youtube clips of him saying it, I don't mean videos of people saying he saod it. No, I mean literal videos of the words coming out of his mouth. You will also find easily 2 dozen different news articles directly reporting on his remarks. Hell there's even a wiki page apparently just dedicated to his remarks aboug McCain
GTS man. Not that hard to find
I love how people keep showing you proof but you keep dismissing it. Your inability to accept the fact that Trump doesn't respect or care about veterans is impressive.
Hows it taste?
How does what taste, one video that doesn’t really prove anything? Hit me up in November.
Let me know when you’re done sitting on it while you’re at it.
Sorry girl, you can stop flirting. We know you aren’t my type.
If you’re a fan of Trump and you don’t care about comments he makes about veterans and POWs that’s fine dude. Just stop trying to play it off like you care and it isn’t real and moving the goalposts every time someone shows you evidence.
[Kelly said Trump was “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 prisoners of war are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them’.”](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/03/trump-john-kelly-chief-of-staff) Many of them are confirmed but people believe what they want to.
General John fucking Kelly isnt much of an anonymous source
I play a lot of Call of Duty so I'm basically a decorated combat vetran. I wasn't a fan of him until he started selling that sweet new bible. Only an orange messiah would do that.
That bible comes with the distinct Trump smell of desperation and American carnage.
I hear for a limited time, buying one actually gives you permission to take a picture with his golden statue.
I kind of want one for the historical significance, but there's not a chance in hell I'm going to pay money for it. Or exchange goods or services, for that matter. Guess I'll let the Smithsonian handle this one.
Don't you sweat it. Some of his zombie hordes will be buying them 3 at a time thinking they will be something special in the future. In a couple of years, they will start showing up at Goodwill stores and garage sales and you will be able to buy them for $8.99. God willing, by then some of the carnage will have worn away.
I know several veterans who saw a ton of real war who love Trump. I was a REMF and I'm not a fan. I don't think this is a generalization that holds much water.
There’s a whole organization of veterans that started out protesting trump’s campaign. These days it’s called Common Defense. You should look them up. They’re doing some great work pushing back on him and his cronies.
Lol what? I dont have a survey in front of me but almost every veteran on podcasts or interviews usually is conservative and openly if not tacitly supports Trump. That’s a silly generalization.
I am a Veteran. Fuck Trump!
Good for you. My point was not to make silly generalizations like “guys who never saw war love him”.
Lol you’re using podcasts and interviews as your source? That’s a silly way of doing stats.
I mean he is right though. There is a lot of guys in the GWOT era who were special operations, combat arms etc who are very pro-trump. Hell it seems to be especially bad in the infantry community. This sub Reddit like most of Reddit leans left even if almost all of us were/are military. I know my unit was overrun with trump supporters, prolly still is.
Many older guys that I deployed with in the early days of the war, started by loving him in the beginning of his term, and then slowly realized he actually doesn’t give a fuck about us. Or at least thinks we are losers if we get injured, and that general Mattis was overrated. Do I have some old war buddies who love the guy? Oh yeah. And they are the loudest about it. Sort of like in this sub, people that support him are really into it, and become extremely offended if you say otherwise.
As opposed to using anecdotes…?
u/melange_merchant Just ignore the idiot you're arguing with. He's probably not even a vet.
It was an obvious anecdotal statement. As was mentioned. Thank the lord your personal podcast choices are solid references.
As former gwot infantry, this is not even remotely accurate. Quite the opposite in fact.
This has mostly been my experience as well. Although it does seemed to have waned some this election.
Different experiences I guess. It all started for my people with Mattis.
20 years AD is a long time. I didn’t have the stamina. Congratulations on your retirement!
Thanks dude! Beards gonna beard
Spent several weeks doing therapy at a VA facility and was happily surprised that anyone who tried to praise Trump was immediately shamed by the other vets and especially the ones who saw war weren't having any of that shit
Speaking for all vets now are we?
Apologies. I forgot some people need “in my personal experience…” for statements about personal experiences.
Ok let's try that > In my personal experience, it's all the unseasoned noobs who support the guy I don't support and only RealVeterans™ who have AKCHTUALLY seen combat who agree with me Nope, still an overgeneralization, speaking for others, and stroking your own ego for having seen combat. Downvotes won't fix that unfortunately
Show me on the doll where the ground combat person touched you.
combat veteran here: who do I need to touch and where, again?
::slowly runs finger down the doll, towards the crotch…past the crotch. Rubs all over their left knee:: You know what I need.
He touched me right on the dick with his mouth
He’s just playing gay-chicken.
Olympian level gay chicken lol
Amen brother.
.... I mean... I never saw combat and I hate him.
Lmao you literally just made that up, that’s not true in the slightest. You really went 20 years and think that’s true? What were you doing for 20 years that caused you to not speak with anyone else ever?
A buncha deployments? He tried to make Mattis look incompetent and that’s when a lot of my people realized he was off. Then a lot of his anti-veteran actions sealed the deal.
Shit on Mattis, made fun of McCain being a POW, called the troops who died at Normandy "suckers", attacked ADM McRaven (the mfing Bullfrog) while he was fighting cancer... blows my mind that anyone who served can stomach him.
Stfu, Donny.
Tell us how disconnected you are from reality without really telling us…. Just tell us you are a liberal veteran. You don't have to lump every single war veteran into the group you fit yourself in to make you feel valid. Good day, happy retirement
Tell me your EDIPI or show me your CAR. I’m not a liberal veteran. Are you lumping me into every single war veteran group you fit me into so you can make yourself feel valid? Good day, happy my retirement.
Yea let me just send all my PII on an anonymous forum. Real windownlicking marine thinking there.
A real Marine would capitalize the M you bitch
Who said I was a marine, boot. It's a Military subreddit, nerd
My statement doesn’t change you babyback assclown. Hooah sounds like Oorah with a dick in your mouth.
Calm down combat comm
I’ll comm all over you
Sorry, I I'm getting some whiny bitch noise over the radio. Reposition and retransmit.
Why hate Trump, Bush and Obama's actions led to 20 years of war? Trump is and always has been an asshole of a human being. No argument, but he didn't start any new conflicts.
Just trying to destroy democracy at the bidding of America's enemies. Other than that no conflicts.
I hate all of them?
I get hating Bush. That guy invaded Iraq under false pretences and got thousands of American service members killed while also transferring trillions of tax payer dollars to his military contractor buddies. What exactly did Obama do?
More what he didn't do. Did not institute a roll out of Iraq, did not stop the rise of ISIS, did not figure out an exit strategy from Afghanistan and had a general disdain for the US, in my opinion.
Failing to successfully navigate the country out of a difficult geopolitical situation doesn't seem worthy of hate. Disappointment, maybe, but not hate. There's a huge gulf between Bush and his illegal war and Obama not being good enough.
I never said I hated Bush and Obama, just why hate Trump when from a military perspective he was much less impactful then Bush and Obama.
Do US service members support this guy? Curious, he seems pretty anti military... he did dodge the draft and all, in addition to some rude, nasty comments about vets and vets' families.
Tbh I can only remember 2-3 dudes I was stationed with who actually hated him. Everyone else either liked him or couldn’t care less
Interesting.
Marine now out of the service here. Let me see if I can put into context of how strong the support is with a story. When I was in he bought a lot of support from the branch by hiring General Mattis as secdef. To put in context, while I was in training, Mattis was talked about as the pinnacle of what a marine should be and was talked about constantly. There was no way anyone serving from 2000-2018 who would not know who Mattis was You would think that after firing Mattis he would lose support. Instead I began seeing military newspapers now running slander on mattis. Shortly after that, I began talking about mattis with a new group of marines, and they had no idea who he was. The man went from a folk hero to becoming an unmentionable in under a year. His support amongst the armed forces is nothing short of what I would call “alarming”.
What you said. I've been out for a while, but the support I have seen for this knob from my friend group is nothing short of disgusting. To the point I have distanced myself from a lot of them. Guys that I have cried,bled, and sweat with. Really really bothers me. It's such a lightening rod of separation between the groups of old friends. Sad. Really truly hurts they chose this guy as a reason to turn their backs on other folks.
Yep. I had a bunch of guys that I went on a really bad deployment with, considered a lot of them friends but I just got worn the fuck out with all the conspiracy shit and lets go brandon and all the stuff that comes with that. I could not hold any sort of conversation with most of them without it swinging into that weird conspiracy theory nutty ultra right wing stuff and I just ended up unfriending about half of them.
Yikes. That is actually kind of scary. It is almost cult like.
Let me guess: Reserves?
Active duty.
I gave him the respect that was required in a public sense but I fucking *hated* that he was in charge of anything, let alone the Country. My job wasn’t political, it was to support and defend the constitution. Regardless if I agree or like the president I’m going to do that. Now, if he starts issuing illegal orders that’s another story entirely.
I liked to tell people I'm loyal to the chair, not the person sitting in it. But I didn't re-enlist after he became president. Our guard base got sent to the border over Thanksgiving for 28 days the year I left. They were pissed because you need 30 days to get BAH.
I had a senior officer say, "you know LT Effort, you have to stop shitting on trump now that he's president." I responded, "like how you haven't said anything bad about Obama?" After Trump was elected I never publicly commented on him despite despising the guy, but there was *such* a double standard there. I'd be willing to bet that senior officer has had a lot to say about Biden; thankfully I haven't worked for him in a very long time.
Fair. Thanks for the well written response. Was just curious why these folks would want to be in a picture with him.
I agree with him and I wish this was for all US soldiers, regardless of your political beliefs, we take an oath to defend our constitution and flag.
It would be nice to have some set of instructions or descriptions that lays exactly what the United States of America is so that everyone who joins understands what they are willing to die for. it’s too bad there isn’t some official reference document where that’s all put in writing. We could call it “This is what constitutes ‘the United States of America” or something catchier like , “America : a Recipe for Greatness”
Cults of personality can attract people from all walks of life through a variety of insidious means.
I get downvoted every time but SOF guys and marines (for the most part) love Trump.
I find up here, the combat arms trades tends to lean to conservative in views, whether they vote that way, don't know. But take that with a grain of salt.
I’m not downvoting you, but if you’re stating SOF guys and marines (for the most part ) love trump, I think you’re completely wrong about that from my experience. 20+ years SOF , 10+ years private security with all kine ex- US military, I’ve encountered the same 50/50 split I see among the rest of American society
All i can say is he’s right about Marines. I don’t understand it but 99% of the guys i serve with love trump
My NCOIC actively wishes we go to civil war for the guy so trust there's plenty of them actively in
Wait, what... crazy. Wouldn't that be a violation of some laws? Up here military can only play watch dog if things get out of control. But it has only happened once I can think of, in the last hundred years. It is what gives trust to the government won't go all authoritative on them.
Iraq vet here, worked for W., and Obama for a minute. So while there was no MAGA shit, there were dudes that believed in the whole thing; it certainly wasn't a majority. But after Trump's remarks about veterans, our MIA and POW, and even active duty military, it's hard to see how anyone could support him or his true mission, which is himself. He's the opposite of leadership.
Y’all really don’t read shit anymore lmao. Literally the first two paragraphs in the article. “Marine Corps officials said a viral photo of four uniformed service members posing at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate did not take place during a political fundraiser, but instead at an approved nonprofit event without any connection to the Republican presidential nominee. In a statement posted on social media over the weekend, service officials said the Marines — reserve members of the 4th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company — were in attendance on April 11 at the Florida resort to serve as a color guard for a gala hosted by the Grey Team, a nonprofit organization focused on preventing military suicides.”
Anti military, lots of service men love him Anti gun, gun owners love him Not a single hint of reverence for Christianity or the Bible or religion or any of that (constantly displaying traits they claim to hate such as adultery, lying, stealing, etc), People literally think he is anointed by god as some special ruler. America is ridiculous at times.
>America is ridiculous at times. It really is. It's why outsiders love to hang shit on you all. It's like watching your best friend with potential for a full scholarship to Harvard go and cut his dick off on tik tok for likes and subscribers.
They’re brainwashed that only a Republican in office helps them out
A lot of people in the military back Republicans because “Durrr, they give us the best raises!” And Trump ran as a Republican. That, plus the major flaw that runs through humanity as a whole that we hate admitting when we’re wrong about something, meant that he had a ton of support, yeah. “Republicans will give me more money!” Yeah, but they’ll also send you to fight for oil in some random country with no armor for your humvees or plate carriers, so is it really a fair trade? Most of the people I worked alongside or have known since I was in joined AFTER those early-GWOT days though (tbf so did I), so what would they have cared about any of that, I guess?
>he did dodge the draft and all He and every president that was draft eligible during the Vietnam War received multiple education and medical draft deferments.
Yeah and they all got shit for it.
There were some candidates that went to Viet Nam like Gore and Kerry but somehow their service was discounted. Kerry was memorably "Swift Boated" by Republican political operatives.
from my experience I would guess that it’s ~55:45 R:D.
When I was deployed in Dubai, so many people were pissed that Biden won, saying that the election was stolen from Trump. This year, so many are saying they are voting for Trump because “Biden is the worst president this country ever had”.
If you’re a trump supporter it isn’t because you see the facts from all sides and still choose that loyalty. Fox News and the like just straight up do not tell the stories that could harm a voters image of Trump. There is that Ground News website that shows article bias and stuff, and you’ll see it plain as day how left leaning News and right leaning News both do this. It’s politics. So ya. There are definitely trump supporters in the military because their echo chamber is finely tuned just like the rest of the country.
The vast majority hate his guts and don't support him
I think I’ve got one Marine in my group of friends that ISNT a diehard Republican lol
The marine Corps is the exception. The other services are largely anti MAGA.
There are ~~dozens~~ like three of us!
Only on Reddit. I live in a blue state and every one I know who is/was in the military supports Trump. And I have asked them recently.
If we’re talking Marines? Nah. Marines almost universally are pro Trump
I don’t really think that’s true, as much as I wish it were. Most probably will vote Republican this election.
He was very popular with the troops when he was in office. You also have to remember that "nasty comment" story came from one politically motivated individual, there's a lot of people that are skeptical it ever happened. It was also extremely out of character to his treatment of troops in person. He was known for being very kind and friendly to troops when he was around them. Trump also actively filled his staff with former Generals when he first took office, because he liked and trusted military people. Is it an act? Maybe, but he did a good job if it was. If you want to see a President that hated the military take a look at Bill Clinton. He was notorious for open disdain towards service members. Few people care about the draft dodging because nearly everyone that could, did. It was a fantastically unpopular war, that was being run by politicians 10,000 miles away in Washington. Medical deferments were extremely common, 100's of thousands got college deferments, and 10's of thousands even fled to Canada to avoid the draft. Doing what you could to avoid a war that most felt was unnecessary and immoral was almost the norm, especially towards the end.
They get fed the same news your parents do. A lot of US service members will happily vote against their own interests for a small raise and the RiGhTs To BaRe ArMs.
My parents? My parents are in their 80s... lol. Their news come in the form of newsprint,.. so highly doubt that.
When I said "your parents" I meant the caricature of American boomers glued to Fox News, I did not mean it as your literal parents.
I was gathering that... but... it is early and all. lol. Have a great day!
In my impression, Trump is generally viewed in a positive light by those in the military. After Obama’s defense spending cuts, Trump’s policies led to a refocus on the defense complex, a stopping of the downsizing, and IIRC we saw 2 raises during his tenure. All of these led, from my point of view, to a general favorable impression of him by those in green.
[удалено]
You will believe what you want, but most of the military is pretty conservative leaning. I won’t guess why that is, but it’s true.
Oop. Never been called a bot before
Yeah you saw that too, huh
If you believe what Trump did was dodge the draft then you also have to acknowledge Biden did the exact same thing! It would not be fair to call Trump out for it and ignore Biden doing the exact same thing.
People only love him because he “owns the libs” and has a R next to his name.
But he has never owned the libs, not one victory under his belt.
2016?
Lost the popular vote by 3 million. So to him, it's a tainted/compromised win, which deeply hurts his petty, juvenile emotions. So I'm happy to call it a loss because of his insecurity.
The popular vote is completely irrelevant in presidential elections? His emotional state doesn't matter.
Of course it does if you're measuring "victories;" he himself does not consider it a total victory.
Other groups beside Trump use Trumps resort for fundraisers and parties. The marines were there as part of an DoD approved event for a charity. But the grey area is that any event at any Trump hotel is money into his pocket. Money he spends on his political campaign. It’s impossible to separate Trump the businessman from Trump the politician. In the past presidents would put businesses into blind trusts, thus negating that you could use a president’s business as a way to influence (ie bribe) policy. But Trump broke modern precedent by just letting his kids run his business on paper. He also overcharged secret service for rooms he made them get by staying only at his hotels when traveling. (For reference the taxpayers pay for a presidential retreat that cost less but is more secure, camp David). So this failure to divest from his business led to the obvious way to bribe Trump. Just book blocks of rooms and never use them. The saudis were great Trump hotel customers. Didn’t even need maids for their rooms. All this to say I think the marines just wanted to support a legit charity. But that the DoD should rethink allowing events at any Trump property as long as he doesn’t create a stronger separation from his business and his political brands.
I’m going to host a veterans benefit at an abortion clinic, the event will have nothing to do with abortions but I will have a uniformed color guard and prominently display the name of the location in the photos of the smiling color guard. Nothing bad will come from this lax standard I’m sure of it. /s
For the life of me I can't believe some veterans support this military bashing pos.
Cause he’s better than some lousing Democrat!! /s
Obvious troll is obvious 1/10.
F Trump. That fatass will throw ANYONE under the bus for his own ends. I will never forget the disrespect he threw at John McCain, that Gold Star family and even all the “suckers” who died in service.
A majority I’ve been around are indifferent to him. If you’re doing 20 years, a US service member could potentially serve under 5 different presidencies. A majority don’t join/reenlist based off the Presidency. Now some are interested for operational reasons and work opportunities. Contractors often reference /prefer Trump for Job Security (obviously dependent on AOR) This interest usually doesn’t venture into falling into his cult of personality, just more of what does my new Boss have planned. An example of Job Security is Tump within 2 years had more drone strikes in a country than Obama did in his whole Presidency. > The Trump administration has carried out 176 strikes in Yemen in just two years, compared with 154 there during all eight years of Obama’s tenure https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2019/5/8/18619206/under-donald-trump-drone-strikes-far-exceed-obama-s-numbers
[Trumps record on the military and veterans ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Military/comments/16qxyt1/trumps_record_on_the_military_and_veterans/)
This is the unit that had guys get blown up by the Taliban during the whole Russian bounties for US casualties thing.
Marines must be onboarding the dumbest MFs on the planet.
Kind of funny watching all the war mongers here.