(CNN) Memorial Day, for politicians, is a no-brainer. You express thanks to those who have served and condolences for those who have been lost. That's it. That's the statement.
President Donald Trump went in, um, another direction on Monday.
Here's his tweet:
"Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice!"
Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice!
This is a tweet about Trump masquerading as a tweet about Memorial Day. The remembrance of those who fell in service to the country is used here by Trump as simply a launching pad to tout accomplishments during his first 16 months in office.
Need evidence? Ask yourself if those who died for the country did so while thinking about the current unemployment rate. Or how a family mourning someone lost fighting for the United States today would react when the President ends a tweet allegedly honoring their service with this: "Nice!"
Compare Trump's tweet to how other politicians handled Memorial Day.
Here's South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham's tweet : "On #MemorialDay we honor the American heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our values and protecting our freedoms. We owe them a debt of gratitude we can never repay."
And here's what former President Barack Obama said via Twitter : "We can never truly repay the debt we owe our fallen heroes. But we can remember them, honor their sacrifice, and affirm in our own lives those enduring ideals of justice, equality, and opportunity for which generations of Americans have given that last full measure of devotion."
There are dozens (and dozens) more of these sorts of tweets and statements. And not one of them sounds anything like what Trump wrote.
Remember that phrase "There's a time and place for everything"? Trump seems not to have that gene in him -- or to listen to people who do. Anyone -- and I mean ANYONE -- who Trump ran that tweet by before sending it would tell him that it sounds incredibly self-serving, far too focused on himself and what he's done as opposed to what today means for the country.
But as the past 16 months has shown, Trump rarely consults with people before he tweets. He feels as though he innately understands Twitter -- that it is the medium best suited for him to communicate to the millions and millions of people who not only voted for him but also "get" him at some core level.
Maybe that group of core Trump supporters think today's tweet is a good idea, though it's difficult to see how.
The tweet seems reflective of a broader belief that has animated every moment of Trump's campaign and presidency: This is about him. Period.
"Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it," Trump said in accepting the Republican nomination back in 2016. I alone can fix it.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself in the Russia probe? "Very unfair to the President," Trump told The New York Times last summer.
Me, I, me. I did this. I deserve credit. This is unfair to me. Soldiers fought and died so I could make the unemployment rate better. And so on.
Trump's total lack of understanding of how past presidents have prioritized the collective good of the country over their own personal aggrandizement or self -promotion represents one of the most consequential breaks with history embodied in Trump.
Trump is the "me" President, not the "we" President. And that is a profound change in how politicians -- Democrats and Republicans -- have conceived of the office they hold.
Columnists Eugene Robinson and Christine Emba discuss the NFL's decision to fine protesting players. They join opinion writers David Ignatius and Molly Roberts on the weekly Opinions roundtable "it's Only Thursday." (The Washington Post)
Columnists Eugene Robinson and Christine Emba discuss the NFL's decision to fine protesting players. They join opinion writers David Ignatius and Molly Roberts on the weekly Opinions roundtable "it's Only Thursday." (The Washington Post)
It is, unfortunately, appropriate that the National Football League’s owners decided to issue their rule attacking free expression the week before Memorial Day.
A holiday dedicated to those who gave their lives for our nation’s freedom has itself been mired in political controversy almost from the beginning. The latest round of posturing and pandering around patriotism should not surprise us.
Samuel Johnson saw patriotism as “the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Let’s qualify that. An honest love of country is a virtue, not a vice. And nothing should sully the honor of the men and women whose sacrifices make it possible for us to speak and worship freely, and to exercise democratic control over our government.
Nonetheless, Johnson was onto something, because patriotism often is manipulated in the name of power, advantage and, in the case of the NFL’s wealthy overseers, money. And the contested history of Memorial Day is a story not only of innocent local pride but also of political and cultural clashes.
It took until 1966 for Congress to grant official recognition to Waterloo, N.Y. — it first decorated the graves of Union soldiers on May 5, 1866 — as the originator of the holiday.
San Francisco 49ers Eric Reid (35), Colin Kaepernick (7) and Eli Harold (58) kneel during the national anthem in 2016. (Daniel Gluskoter/AP)
But there are many other claims. The great Civil War historian James McPherson told the story of a Northern abolitionist who traveled to Charleston, S.C., to organize schools for freed slaves. On May 1, 1865, a year before Waterloo, he led a group of black children to a cemetery for Union soldiers “to scatter flowers on their graves.”
In the meantime, Southern women began organizing ceremonies for those who died doing battle for secession, culminating in the practice of Confederate Memorial Days. Gen. John A. Logan, the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the politically influential Union veterans group, is widely credited with taking the holiday national. He called on the GAR’s posts to hold decoration rites on May 30, 1868, for those who died to keep the country together. By 1891, every Northern state had established May 30 as a holiday.
It’s no shock that the holiday’s many currents of regional and racial tension rose to the surface during President Barack Obama’s time in office. In 2009, a group of scholars, including McPherson, wrote Obama, urging him to abandon the practice that began with President Woodrow Wilson of sending a wreath to the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
As was his way, Obama responded with what he hoped would be unifying gestures. He lay the traditional wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, had a wreath delivered to the Confederate Memorial and became the first president to send one as well to the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington . It commemorates the service of more than 200,000 people of color who fought for the Union.
Oh, yes, and in 2010, when Obama chose to honor the war dead in Chicago, some of his conservative critics intimated he was the only president not to lay a Memorial Day wreath at Arlington.
That was flatly untrue. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and others had all been elsewhere on Memorial Day at least once during their terms.
So phony claims and nasty innuendo built around imagined sins against patriotism and our veterans predate President Trump. But Trump’s attacks on NFL players who have knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice represent a particularly vile effort to mobilize political support by implying that the dissenting athletes, most of them black, lack a devotion to country.
The NFL enacted a new policy May 23 requiring players to stand for the national anthem or wait in the locker room. Players have protested police treatment of African Americans by kneeling during the anthem, a move President Trump has criticized. (Victoria Walker /The Washington Post)
The privileged NFL owners chose to capitulate to this divisive propaganda. The anthem at the heart of this discussion celebrates our country as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Yet the owners’ action is the opposite of bravery and a blow to freedom. Many on the right have spoken out forcefully for free speech on college campuses. But do they now propose to turn stadiums into “safe spaces” where conservatives deny others the liberties they claim for themselves? (And kudos to conservative writer and Iraq War vet David French for calling out this contradiction.)
Democrats fret that even engaging with Trump on all of this risks placing progressives on the wrong side of patriotism. But the history of Memorial Day should teach us that the meaning of our patriotism has long been a matter of necessary struggle.
We should not let the divider in the Oval Office keep us from joining together in profound appreciation of our fallen. They perished under a flag that represents “liberty and justice for all.” The living cannot surrender either of these commitments.
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"These are some of our Marines buried here," said U.S. Marine Sergeant Major Darrell Carver of the 6th Marine Regiment as he walks among the graves of U.S. soldiers, most of them killed in the World War I Battle of Belleau Wood, during a ceremony to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle on Memorial Day at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery on May 27, 2018 near Chateau-Thierry, France. Nearly 100 years before U.S. soldiers, including Marines from the 6th Regiment, repelled repeated assaults from a German advance at Belleau Wood only 60 miles from Paris. The U.S. suffered approximately 10,000 casualties in the month-long battle, including nearly 2,000 dead. Today the Battle of Belleau Wood is central to the lore of U.S. Marines. (Photo: Sean Gallup, Getty Images)
America remembers the fallen
On Memorial Day, the U.S. remembers all soldiers who have died during any act of military service. Today, most government offices and a number of businesses will be closed to honor fallen military men and women. For restaurants and stores that are open, many offer freebies and special discounts to veterans and active military. If you didn’t make any travel plans this year, don’t worry. It might rain anyway. Subtropical Storm Alberto will dump heavy rain across much of the southeastern United States through the long weekend.
CLOSE Soldiers place flags at Arlington National Cemetery ahead of Memorial Day. Militarykind, USA TODAY
It's National Burger Day, and the chains are upping their game
Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, and this year it also happens to coincide with National Burger Day! Several restaurants are celebrating with deals. Participation can vary and in some cases, you'll need to be signed up for the restaurant's loyalty program or have a mobile app. The day comes as McDonald's and other chains are responding to demand for higher-quality burgers.
CLOSE Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, and this year it also happens to coincide with National Burger Day! Celebrate with these deals. USA TODAY
The puck drops on the Stanley Cup Finals
No matter what, one NHL team is four wins away from capturing their first Stanley Cup. Game 1 of the National Hockey's League championship round begins tonight as the Washington Capitals — who haven't held the Cup in their 44-year history — battle the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, who will attempt to hoist hockey's greatest reward in their very first season.
CLOSE SportsPulse: We have the makings of a great Stanley Cup Final on our hands and USA TODAY Sports' Kevin Allen breaks it all down. USA TODAY Sports
LeBron looms over Game 7 hoops battle
The Houston Rockets play at home against the Golden State Warriors on Monday to determine the winner of the NBA's Western Conference. The Warriors tied the best-of-seven series at three Thursday after guard Klay Thompson's on-fire performance powered a 115-86 victory. Whoever wins will face the Cleveland Cavaliers for all the marbles, with LeBron James & co. having bested the Boston Celtics on Sunday night. Amazingly, it will be James' eighth straight trip to the NBA finals.
Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson (11) celebrates during the second half of Game 6 of the NBA basketball Western Conference Finals against the Houston Rockets in Oakland, Calif., Saturday, May 26, 2018. The Warriors won 115-86. (AP Photo/Ben Margot) (Photo: The Associated Press)
Broncos bigwig chases golfing glory
Denver Broncos general manager John Elway will compete Monday in a qualifying golf tournament with a shot at playing in the U.S. Senior Open. The former Super Bowl-winning quarterback will aim to finish as one of the top two competitors at The Broadmoor East Course in Colorado Springs, according to The Denver Post. Should he win or finish as the tournament's runner-up, he'd have a spot in the U.S. Senior Open come June 28.
Former NFL great John Elway tees off on the 12th hole during the Annexus Pro-Am at the 2018 Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. (Photo: Tom Tingle/The Republic)
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