Trump’s Memorial Day Rant Was Not Merely Inappropriate, It was Disqualifying!Memorial Day is typically a presidential lay-up. The president rallies the nation by delivering a message honoring fallen U.S. military service members with dignity, reflection, and unity as central themes.
On Memorial Day 2024, for instance, President Joe Biden addressed a gathering at Arlington National Cemetery. Here is part of what he had to say:
“Freedom has never been guaranteed – every generation has to earn it, fight for it, defend it in battle between autocracy and democracy, between the greed of a few and the rights of many. It matters. Our democracy is more than just a system of government. It’s the very soul of America.
“We gather at this sacred place, at this solemn moment, to remember, to honor –honor the sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands of women and men who have given their lives to this nation. Each one, literally . . . a link in the chain of honor stretching back to our founding days, each one bound by common commitment; not to a place, not to a person, not to a president, but to an idea unlike any idea in human history: the idea of the United States of America. Today, we bear witness to the price they paid.
“I’ve long said we have many obligations as a nation. But we only have one truly sacred obligation: To prepare those we send in to battle, to prepare and take care of them and their families when they come home, and when they don’t . . .”
Yesterday, Memorial Day, Donald Trump delivered this Memorial Day message on Truth Social:
“HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS, WHO ALLOWED 21,000,000 MILLION PEOPLE TO ILLEGALLY ENTER OUR COUNTRY, MANY OF THEM BEING CRIMINALS AND THE MENTALLY INSANE,THROUGH AN OPEN BORDER THAT ONLY AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WOULD APPROVE, AND THROUGH JUDGES WHO ARE ON A MISSION TO KEEP MURDERERS, DRUG DEALERS, RAPISTS, GANG MEMBERS, AND RELEASED PRISONERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, IN OUR COUNTRY SO THEY CAN ROB, MURDER, AND RAPE AGAIN — ALL PROTECTED BY THESE USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY. HOPEFULLY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, AND OTHER GOOD AND COMPASSIONATE JUDGES THROUGHOUT THE LAND, WILL SAVE US FROM THE DECISIONS OF THE MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL. BUT FEAR NOT, WE HAVE MADE GREAT PROGRESS OVER THE LAST 4 MONTHS, AND AMERICA WILL SOON BE SAFE AND GREAT AGAIN! AGAIN, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY, AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
Which message more represents a man fit to be president of the United States?
On Memorial Day, the nation is supposed to come together to honor its fallen soldiers — men and women who gave their lives in defense of the United States. On Memorial Day, the job of any American president is simple: Show humility. Express gratitude. Honor the dead
Donald Trump did none of these. Instead, he unleashed a tirade of venom, grievance, and barely contained rage. His furious, grievance-soaked diatribe read more like an incel forum post than a presidential statement. It was a stream-of-Consciousness rant.
It wasn’t just inappropriate.
It was unhinged . . .
Sociopathic . . .
And it disqualifies Donald Trump from being president of the United States.
President Trump: Memorial Day is not about you.
This solemn day is not about politics or immigration. It is not about judges, campaigns, poll numbers, or your hurt feelings, Mr. President.
It is not about you.
It is about the people who died wearing the uniform of the United States, people who stormed beaches, jumped from planes, or were blown apart in wars they didn’t start and never came home from. Their families and even ordinary citizens visit their headstones every May, aching with loss and pride.
You, sir, could have been presidential. You could have shown humility, expressed gratitude, or honored the dead. But, instead of honoring the ultimate sacrifice, you launched into a tirade about your “scum” predecessor, “criminals and the mentally insane,” “open borders,” “USA-hating judges,” and “murderers, drug dealers, rapists, gang members, and released prisoners.”
Have you no shame?
And to congressional Republicans, hypocrites who continue to enable this wretch, consider this: You men and women spent an entire political season arguing that Joe Biden, a kind and decent man, was to old and unfit to serve our country as president, I ask:
Is Trump a “normal” president?
Which Memorial Day message exhibits “presidential strength?”
Are Trump’s the words of an unhinged narcissist—a man unfit for the office he holds?
Dehumanizing language. Authoritarian rhetoric.
Trump’s Memorial Day screed was more than tasteless — it was dangerous.
Calling political opponents “scum” and judges “monsters” is not just undignified — it’s dehumanizing. It echoes the language of authoritarians throughout history, who labeled their enemies subhuman before attempting to purge them. Accusing the judiciary of actively enabling rape and murder is incitement, not criticism. No former president — not Nixon, Clinton, or Andrew Johnson, not even Andrew Jackson — ever delivered a Memorial Day message like Trump’s. That’s because all past presidents, even the flawed ones, understood there are lines you don’t cross.
Trump cares nothing about lines of decency or presidential decorum. He takes pleasure in decimating both.
This is not “just Trump being Trump.”
We’ve heard it all before:
Enough!
This isn’t grade school. It isn’t funny, harmless, or anything America should ever accept as normal. A man who cannot control his rage on a day meant for reverence is unfit to lead our nation. A man who uses a national day of mourning to attack fellow Americans is not defending the country —he is dividing it. A man who desecrates Memorial Day by weaponizing it for perceived political gain disqualifies himself from any serious claim to the presidency.
If Memorial Day stands for anything . . .
. . . it stands for honor, humility, and service above self. Trump’s message displays the opposite: dishonor, narcissism, and cruelty. Defenders will spin this—they always do. They’ll claim, “he’s just telling it like it is” or “the media is overreacting.”
Enough!
No amount of ‘caps-lock patriotism’ can obscure the fact that Donald Trump is nothing more than a schoolyard bully—a man at war with decency and with anyone who won’t kneel to his fragile ego.
The soldiers we remember on Memorial Day died for an idea: Democracy; a country held together by shared values and mutual respect. Yesterday, Trump, as he has so often, spat on all of that. Shame on him. Shame on us for giving him another opportunity. And shame on all the traitors who continue to enable his unpatriotic and unpresidential behavior.
Mark M. Bello is an attorney and author of 9 Zachary Blake Legal Thrillers and other legal themed novels and children’s books. For more information, please visit https://www.markmbello.com
