Trump gets 'kick' comparing war deaths

First published in the Brunswick Beacon, 06.04.26

As I write this on Memorial Day, I am grateful for the many selfless Americans throughout our nation’s history who made the ultimate sacrifice to secure our freedom. Most recently, that includes the 13 Americans killed in the Iran War. Each loss was a tragedy for the fallen and for the parents, spouses and children they left behind.

For 250 years, American presidents have regarded it as their sacred duty to remind us of our fallen heroes’ sacrifice and call upon us to honor them. The most stirring example is Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Lincoln challenged Americans to honor those who gave “the last full measure of devotion” by increasing our dedication to their cause: “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

In his 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America,” historian Gary Wills shows how Lincoln used the occasion to fulfill the promise of The Declaration of Independence and redefine America as “a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

By elevating their sacrifice, Lincoln inspired us to serve a purpose greater than ourselves.

Contrast that with Donald Trump’s remarks before Memorial Day.

Asked about the Americans who died in his Iran War, Trump said, “We lost 13 people. Now, 13 people is 13 too much — but we lost 13 people. Somebody else would have lost 100,000 people, OK?” Referring to the 2021 Kabul evacuation, Trump boasted, “I get a kick when I look at somebody on television: ‘He’s lost 13 people.’ I lost 13 people; they lost 13 people leaving an airport.”

Lincoln used the sacrifice of fallen Americans to call the nation to a higher purpose. Trump used the deaths of 13 Americans to boast about himself.

Vince Amoroso

Sunset Beach