Trump honors vets, discusses deferment
PORTSMOUTH, England — President Donald Trump on Wednesday joined world leaders to praise alliances and military service ahead of the anniversary of the D-Day invasion, just hours after offering no regrets when asked about whether he wished he had been able to serve in the Vietnam War.
Trump’s comments came in a wide-ranging interview in which he also dismissed the significance of climate change, defended his choice of words about the American-born Duchess of Sussex and suggested he was looking into new gun regulations banning silencers. Later, while Europe slept, he lashed out at actress and singer Bette Midler and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., via Twitter.
The onslaught of disjointed news and commentary threatened to distract from Trump’s purpose for the visit — to pay tribute to the veterans of the battle that shifted the course of World War II 75 years ago. Ahead of his trip, some worried the unpredictable president would inject politics into the typically solemn ceremony . While Trump did not veer off script during the memorial — expressing reverence for the bravery of veterans — his comments before the event expressed none of that sensitivity concerning service in Vietnam.
In the interview with Piers Morgan that aired Tuesday, Trump was asked if he wished he had served in Vietnam. “Well, I was never a fan of that war, I’ll be honest with you. I thought it was a terrible war. I thought it was very far away,” Trump said. “At that time, nobody had ever heard of the country.”
Trump received a series of deferments to avoid serving in Vietnam, including one attained with a physician’s letter stating that he suffered from bone spurs in his feet.
Trump was then asked whether serving in the military generally was something he would have liked. Trump said he would not have minded at all and talked about how he had beefed up spending on defense as president.
“I would have been honored, but I think I make up for it right now,” Trump said.
Trump’s first two days in the United Kingdom were all about honoring him, as Queen Elizabeth II and the British government showered him with a grand arrival ceremony, a state dinner and personal tours of Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the Churchill War Rooms. The next two days are meant to focus on the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, and the soldiers who fought and died saving Europe from Nazi Germany.
Trump did his part with a 90-second recitation of some of the prayer that President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered to a worried nation just getting word of the fighting. Trump, with images of an American flag and Roosevelt projected behind him, read to the crowd, “Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day, have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity.”