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| - On Aug. 27, 2024, a screenshot circulated online that purportedly showed an X post by former U.S. President Donald Trump in which he boasted about his recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery to honor fallen Marines killed in a 2021 suicide bombing during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The screenshot image was shared on Facebook along with the caption, "Is this real?!?! If it is, he has absolutely lost his mind!"
The full text of the screenshot read:
Today I visited Arlington Cemetary [sic] to honor victims. I want to remind everyone that I was the greatest president every [sic] on the military. I am the best on the militrary [sic] on the planet, PROBABLY IN HISTORY. Soldiers and Veterans love me. Once a Civil War solider [sic] came to me, with tears in his eyes and said, "Sir, thank you for building the United States military from scratch. You remind me of General Patton because you are such a strong fighter and master in strategy. If you did not have devastating bone spurs you would have been a great soldier and probably General.
The screenshot was fabricated. We have rated the image "Fake" for the following reasons:
First, the X handle displayed in the post was "@realDonaldTrimp." Trump's official X handle is @realDonaldTrump.
Second, we found no evidence of any such post on either Trump's X or Truth Social account on the date of Trump's visit to Arlington.
Although Trump has made numerous social media posts with spelling and grammatical errors, some of the statements in the one above were so outlandish that they were evidently intended to mock Trump's authorial idiosyncrasies.
Trump did post this message on Truth Social on Aug. 26:
This is the third anniversary of the BOTCHED Afghanistan withdrawal, the most EMBARRASSING moment in the history of our Country. Gross Incompetence - 13 DEAD American soldiers, hundreds of people wounded and dead, AMERICANS and BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF MILITARY EQUIPMENT LEFT BEHIND. You don't take our soldiers out first, you take them out LAST, when all else is successfully done. Russia then invaded Ukraine, Israel was attacked, and the USA became, and is, a laughing stock all over the World. THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA REMAINS SILENT IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE WORST ADMINISTRATION IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY! MAGA2024
And this message, seemingly written by Trump, was posted on the Trump campaign's Truth Social account the same:
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Early this morning, Tulsi and I were at Arlington National Cemetery with the families of servicemembers who lost their lives in the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Today marks the 3-year anniversary of the terrorist attack at Abbey Gate that left 13 American servicemembers dead, dozens more badly wounded, with many innocent civilians also killed and injured. We will never forget those brave warriors who made the supreme sacrifice for our country—they will live in our hearts FOREVER. And to all the Gold Star families, our gratitude is everlasting. We will honor their memory by restoring a government that puts the American People FIRST.
We have covered previous controversial claims around Trump's attitude towards U.S. service members, including an alleged instance in which he called fallen soldiers "suckers" and "losers," a quote we were unable to independently verify as genuine.
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