President Donald Trump made a light-hearted remark about how there aren’t many service members named Donald buried at the historic military cemetery where he gave a Memorial Day speech.
Trump spoke at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to honor fallen U.S. military members, including those buried at the location of his address.
After acknowledging the families of deceased veterans present, he mentioned some names of military personnel interred there and laughed when his own name came up.
“Four hundred thousand souls rest on these grounds, these beautiful grounds,” Trump said.
He continued:
In this sacred soil, which is first consecrated in the hours of America’s greatest division to be eternal symbol, national unity. It cannot be by chance alone that the very first service laid to rest here in this place of supreme sacrifice was a Union soldier by the name of Private Christman. Private William Henry Christman of Pennsylvania, who died, 19 years old. He was a great young man, they say.
Beside him are more than eighteen thousand other young men named William, over twenty thousand named John, over thirteen thousand named James—joined over time by Isaacs, Elijahs, Earls, Hanks, Helens, Juans, Margarets, Marius, Donalds—not too many– and others whose names tell the true story of American greatness.
The president’s comments resonate with his own history of avoiding the draft during the Vietnam War.
This issue stirred controversy during his first term and has come up again due to his conflicts with Iran and his frequent mentions of Vietnam while discussing current military issues.
“I would’ve won Vietnam very quickly,” the president told CNBC’s Squawk Box in April.
Trump deferred the draft four times while in college and once more after graduating, citing a diagnosis of “bone spurs” from a family doctor.
That medical claim has been questioned by the doctor’s daughter, who told the press in 2018 that the diagnosis was “a favor.”
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