Donald Trump has always had something of a strange relationship with soldiers and the military. Trump never served himself, although he has always been a big fan of military pageantry, whether it’s his oft-stated desire to host a military parade or his frequent attendance at the Army-Navy Game. He referred to “my generals” during his first term, although he ultimately fell out with most of them.
In 2020, the Atlantic reported that Trump had referred to soldiers who die in wars as “losers” and “suckers.” The author of that story was Jeffrey Goldberg, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, the same reporter who was accidentally added to the Signal chat in the Signalgate scandal last month. Trump has denied that he ever made the “losers” comment, which was part of the administration’s strong antipathy toward Goldberg. John Kelly, who was White House chief of staff during Trump’s first term, confirmed the story a couple of years later.
Remember, pundits: If you say Real Americans will be outraged by this, you are an elitist who still doesn’t get it. But if you say Real Americans don’t care about this at all, you have real respect for them. https://t.co/Ij8HqpMbxb pic.twitter.com/hVuXehFHhB
— Isaac Chotiner (@IChotiner) September 3, 2020
On Wednesday, Trump hosted a group of wounded soldiers at the White House, where he said to them, “So you guys got hit, huh? Pretty good. You got hit. Amazing.”
Donald Trump to wounded soldiers in the Oval Office:
“So you guys got hit, huh? Pretty good. You got hit. Amazing.”
WTF
pic.twitter.com/jlmRwFpMen— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) April 23, 2025
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Trump also handed out “challenge coins” to the assembled veterans, in front of a map of the “Gulf of America.”
President Trump hands out challenge coins to wounded veterans in the Oval Office: pic.twitter.com/KhbWtH6vDO
— Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) April 23, 2025
During the presidential race last October, per the Washington Post, attention was brought to a lot of weird comments Trump had made about wounded and dead soldiers. At one point, he stated that the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which goes to civilians, was “much better” than the Medal of Honor, which he said goes to soldiers who are “either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.”
Trump also referred to “headaches” suffered by American soldiers serving in Iraq who suffered brain injuries due to an Iranian missile attack in 2020.
Photo courtesy of X screenshot.
