President Trump’s absence at the dignified transfer of four US servicemen who died during a training exercise in Lithuania is being noticed. While thousands gathered in Lithuania—including the Lithuanian president—to send the soldiers off, our commander in chief was busy (as he has been for over a quarter of his second presidency) playing in his Saudi-backed golf tournament at Mar-a-Lago.
This is not the first time that Trump has missed a dignified transfer—he only attended four out of 96 during his first term, per an investigation by HuffPost. Presidents are not required to be at the transfers and generally only attend a handful each term. (These four were met on US soil by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and several Democratic senators.)
However, there is a particular ire since Trump is missing the transfer for such a trivial reason. Chris (who asked us not to use his last name) is an Air Force veteran who spoke to my colleague Peter Berger at a Hands Off rally in San Francisco on Saturday, calling Trump’s choice “the ultimate lack of respect to our military.” He held a sign that said “4 US Soldiers bodies returned home, where is their Commander in Chief? In Florida—Golfing.”
He also decried the administration’s cuts to the Veterans Affairs. “[Trump] really needs to look at what he is doing to the VA because after these military service members leave the military, it’s our duty as a nation to take care of them.”
The Trump Administration has announced plans to cut 80,000 employees from the VA. It has already announced the end of a program that saved the homes of 17,000 military veterans facing foreclosures and ended specific healthcare for trans and intersex veterans.
I spoke to T Dianne Smith, a Navy vet, at a protest in Eugene, Oregon. As a retiree, Trump’s tariffs and proposed changes to Social Security and Medicaid threaten her entire income.
She felt most compelled to come not because of the effects on her, but because it was her duty. “When you enter the military, you take an oath to defend the Constitution and to obey the orders of the president, but the Constitution comes first,” she explained. “If someone gives you an unlawful order, you are required by law to not follow that order and to follow your conscience.”
