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“I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” – Donald Trump surveying graves at a military cemetery

Jeffrey Goldberg relates a visit that President Donald Trump made with his Chief of Staff John Kelly to Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day 2017:

The two men visited Section 60, the 14-acre section that is the burial ground for those killed in America’s most recent wars (and the site of Trump’s Arlington controversy earlier this year). Kelly’s son Robert, a Marine officer killed in 2010 in Afghanistan, is buried in Section 60. Trump, while standing by Robert Kelly’s grave, turned to his father and said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” At first, Kelly believed that Trump was making a reference to the selflessness of America’s all-volunteer force. But later he came to realize that Trump simply does not understand nontransactional life choices. I quoted one of Kelly’s friends, a fellow retired four-star general, who said of Trump, “He can’t fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself. He just thinks that anyone who does anything when there’s no direct personal gain to be had is a sucker.” 

Meeting someone with this frame of mind, or coming to the realization that a friend or neighbor had such an attitude, would be disconcerting in the best of circumstances. Not everyone is a hero, but most of us understand that not every choice in life is coldly transactional. Even a modicum of virtue demands more of us than this. Not everything we do, not every good deed, is calculated to generate a profit. Sometimes the good to be done demands a higher level of grace and generosity than many folks could muster. But it's not a mystery for us why a soldier might make this choice without regard for self-interest.

It is genuinely shocking to have a former- and possibly a future-Commander in Chief who doesn't get it.

Service to one's country may require sacrifice. For the men and women who volunteer for military service, the sacrifice may include their deaths. Regardless of their individual motivation or life circumstances or philosophical perspective, these folks have chosen to do something that benefits a greater good than self. They are serving their country, defending the national interest, protecting their fellow Americans. That's a fundamental aspect of their service in uniform.

The payoff, in Trump's view, couldn't possibly be high enough to get killed for. The man is clueless about what would prompt someone to enlist in the United States military. To have a president, with the power and authority to send men and women into battle, who doesn't get this -- who regards Americans in uniform as losers and suckers -- is appalling.

Donald Trump is unfit to lead this nation. He is so full of himself, so consumed by self-interest, so blind to considerations broader than personal ego that he is incapable of weighing moral and strategic considerations and coming to reasonable judgments. The evidence for this is overwhelming. Yet the contemporary Republican Party, including many who know full well who Trump is, is foursquare behind him. That represents a disgraceful, inexcusable failure of the Grand Old Party.

Goldberg's full account ("Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had’") is in the Atlantic. Kevin Drum has helpfully gathered all the quotes ("Donald Trump’s contempt for the military, quote by quote").