Trump Shoots Mouth Off at "Not Strong" Soldiers with PTSD

Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump (R-NY) has been trying to make a great play to win the military and veterans vote, as so many of them are against Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (D-NY).  Trump has emphasized rebuilding our military and solving Veterans Administration hospitals continued patient care problem for veterans.

With this in mind, Trump spoke before the Retired American Warriors PAC gathering in Herndon, Virginia, Mr. Trump was tossed a verbal softball by a questioner about a prospective Trump Administration's attention to Tramatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which afflicts many veterans returning from today's battlefield. Trump's answer to this puff ball question was such a foul ball that it evokes the military acronym FUBAR.




Suggesting that soldiers suffering from PTSD due to combat experiences  are not strong is pain ignorant and insulting, despite the dulcet tones and fleeting promises contained his Mr. Trump's response.

Perhaps such boorish buffoonery should not be surprsing from Mr. Trump, as he made great hay about insulting Senator John McCain (R-AZ) being a "loser" because he was interred in the Hanoi Hilton as a POW for five years. And this ignorance may arise from the Donald because the closest to combat Trump came was surviving his "personal Vietnam" by avoiding STDs in the 1980s.

After shooting his mouth off about PTSD soldiers, it is a question of whether Mr. Trump politically shot himself in the foot with his insulting answer.   If veterans and their families want a President who will actively rebuild America's military capability as well as support the interests of veterans, it is dubious that they would vote for Mrs Clinton, Mr "What is Aleppo" Libertarian Governor Gary Johnson (L-NM) or Green Party candidate Jill Stein (Green-MA). There is Independent Presidential candidate Evan McMullin (I-UT), who  advocates more conservative political perspectives,  has made the ballot (or qualified for write in status) in 34 states, but has not made much of an impact in national polls.

It is a good bet if active military men and women could publicly participate in politics, they might well affix this on their bumpers.

Trolling for Troops

After the falling out between 2016 Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump and the Fox News , (the organizer and broadcaster of the only GOP Iowa Debate),  the mercurial mogul announced that he would boycott the debate and instead attend a fund-raiser for veterans at nearby Drake University.

Since Trump put up a fuss over Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly asking questions, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) proposed a mano-a-mano debate with Trump. Suggested moderators included Mark Levin, Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, or it could be a 60 minute Lincoln Douglas like debate.



In addition, a Cruz Super PAC offered to donate $1.5 million to veterans' causes if the populist politician would show. Trump demurred unless the Republican race was whittled down to just two candidates. Not content with that one-on-one evasion, Trump spokesman Corey Lewindowski said that Trump would agree to debate Cruz once a federal judge declares him eligible to run for President.

 It would seem that Trump is using veterans as props to advance his campaign cause more than raising money for a worthy cause.  But to be fair, the Cruz Super PAC double dare also has the stench of politics over charitable concern.

A couple of also rans in the 2016 Republican Presidential race have expressed interest in showing up to the Trump inspired rally.  Trump was tickled to tweet about how ex Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR) and ex Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) wanted to share the stage with Trump if it was a charitable fund raiser for veterans.  Santorum said that he had nothing to do after the under-card Republican debate.

It seems dubious that Trump will share the stage with a couple of also rans in a campaign counter-programming event that just has a veneer of charity for veterans.. The Huckster and Little Ricky still haven't heard back from The Donald.

This is not the first time that Trump has trolled to exploit veterans during the campaign. After the spectacular ratings for the first Fox News GOP debate, Trump tried to bully CNN to contribute their huge profits from his appearance on the debate stage by donating the veterans' causes. Although Trump toyed with being a no-show as leverage, he appeared on stage in the end.

In the fall, Trump partnered with Veterans for a Strong America for his big military announcement aboard a battleship which amounted to "We'll build a military that will be huge so no one will want to fight us and Americans will get tired of winning."  Well, Veterans for a Strong America lost their non-profit status and endorsed Trump.

 Per 990 tax filings, The Donald J. Trump Foundation has only donated $57,000 to veterans groups between 2009 and 2013.  Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks insisted: "Mr. Trump has made significant financial and in kind contributions to many Veterans organizations, personally and not through the Donald J. Trump Foundation." However Hicks declined to estimate the charitable contributions towards veterans' causes.

Several veterans groups distanced themselves from any Trump charity event for Veterans in Iowa. Veterans for America founder Paul Rieckhoff chaffed at being used for a publicity stunt.

After the VA scandal and the need of our wounded warriors in the long-war against Islamist extremism, it is praiseworthy to support veterans' policy concerns and share the spotlight. But it is bravo sierra to use them as political pawns or props.

Post Scriptus 01/29/2015  The Trump Veterans Rally was held in a small 175 person auditorium at Drake University, which was a couple of miles away from the GOP Debate site. Contrary to expectations, Mr. Trump did share the stage with a couple of his rivals, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum (who had previously won the Iowa Caucuses in 2008 and 2012 respectively).

The big news from the event was that the rally had raised $5 million overnight, including a $1 million check directly cut from Donald Trump.  This money is supposedly earmarked for 22 veterans organizaitons. But all of the proceeds are funneled through the Donald J. Trump Foundation. The setup seems reminiscent of the Clinton Foundation, in which private entities are encouraged to make charitable contributions funneled through a single entity with the appearance of currying favor later with a politician poised for a powerful position.

Aw Huck, Not More Cornpone!

The Democrats held their first Primary "Debate" (more of a candidate forum) at a Las Vegas casino. Most political pundits expected a snoozefest which lays a foundation to a Primary Coronation.

So that Republicans did not totally cede the news cycle to a progressive politics lovefest, a couple of Republican aspirants to the Oval Office took to Twitter to counter-program by chiming in on the process. It was a cheap way to gain attention and get the message out, going over the heads of the established media through the new media.

Donald Trump made headlines with his announcement that he would live tweet the event.  Former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR) also wanted to get in on the action.  The latter leader's sharing seems to epitomize his campaign thus far--  cornpone slung just to win attention.

Take some of the @GovMikeHuckabee tweets--

They seemed like stale standbys to get some yucks. But unlike Huckabee's two debate performances when he dished out canned ham, it seems that the self nicknamed "Duck Hunter" did actually seem to watch the Democrat Debate.

That being said, Huckabee tried to be funny rather than to score points with his big campaign themes. 


In contrast, Donald Trump tried to steal the spotlight by starting with his star-appeal schtick thru @realDonaldTrump tweets--

Trump used social media to leverage his message by retweeting others who echoed or enhanced his memes and campaign messaging, whereas Huckabee basically used Twitter as a platform to share his pre-scripted one liners.

However, it looked like Donald Trump was genuinely reacting to the debate.  His social media responses reinforced his campaign messages on immigration, Washington is broken, helping Veterans and Hillary's hypocrisy.

One indication that Trump was not totally rehearsed in his responses is a short missive "Good move by Bernie S." that has no reference point, hash tags or even Twitter handles.  Presumably, this was when Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) said: "Enough with the emails already!".

On the one hand, Trump generated excitement with his social media participation in the Democrat Debates with authenticity, branding and passively marketing his message. On the other hand, Huckabee served up more cornpone which were groaners to political pundits but did little to advance his own message via social media.

With the revised qualifications for the CNBC debate, this might be one of the last servings of cornpone and canned ham from the Huckster.


Post Scriptus 10/15:  Governor Huckabee has raised the hackles of #BlackLivesMatter activists on social media for his tweet "I trust @berniesanders with my tax dollars like I trust a North Korean chef with my Labrador" as being racist.  

The Huckabee campaign would not back down from this quip.  In an email, the campaign asserted: "Poor liberals, no sense of humor and no sense of reality.  Leave it to liberals to ignore injustices and atrocities of a totalitarian nation on human beings and put more importance on a nations diet which includes grass clippings and canines. Facts: North Koreans eat dog and Bernie Sanders wants to spend 18 trillion dollars of your money. What's so hard to understand?"

Where these social media activists went awry was claiming that the quip was racist instead of being more canned ham from the Huckster.

Smile and Wave Boys for "Operation: Got Your Six"

In the run up to their first major cinematic film "The Penguins of Madagascar" (2014), the team took an assignment from FLOTUS Michelle Obama -- a P.S.A. for Operation Got Your Six.

Kind of strange to have a Skipper report to a General who is really a Private instead of an Admiral.

None the less, it would be good if everyone in the Pentagon, Foggy Bottom and in the Oval to remember the Penguin credo, from Benghazi to Tijuana.

As this high profile mission may have already blown the Penguin Team's cover,  so just smile and wave boys.  

Calvin Coolidge on Veterans