When Trump sat down with Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" host Laura Ingraham on Thursday, he was just moments from a commemoration ceremony in Normandy for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, which began the Allied liberation of France in 1944. As a backdrop for the interview, Fox used the dramatic imagery of the rows of headstones in the cemetery, sparkling white in the June sun.
Speaking to Fox News from the American cemetery at Normandy, the President calls special counsel Robert Mueller a "fool" and the Speaker of the House a "disaster." pic.twitter.com/YRHUiEDag2
— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) June 6, 2019
"Let me tell you, he made such a fool out of himself the last time," Trump said when Ingraham asked if he cared whether Mueller testified before Congress or not. "Because what people don't report is the letter he had to do to straighten out his testimony, because his testimony was wrong."
Of course, Mueller has never testified before Congress. But perhaps Trump was referring to the summary of his report on the Russiagate investigation that Mueller gave to Attorney General William Barr on March 25? Two days later, Mueller sent Barr a second letter, scolding the Justice Department chief for his four-page summary of Mueller's report and complaining that it did not "fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of the investigation.
Trump didn't clarify, and Ingraham didn't press him on it. Instead, the president turned his sights on the speaker of the House.
"But Nancy Pelosi — I call her Nervous Nancy — Nancy Pelosi doesn't talk about it. Nancy Pelosi's a disaster, OK? She's a disaster, and let her do what she wants. You know what? I think they're in big trouble."
However, neither Fox nor Trump took into consideration the symbolism of the US head of state sitting before the final resting place of over 9,000 US war dead and frankly discussing the political turmoil back in Washington. Twitter users noticed, and they were having none of it.
Something so surreal, discordant but somehow perfectly fitting about Trump TV broadcasting culture war inanity and the President’s feuds against the backdrop of the graves of the American soldiers who died at Normandy.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 6, 2019
One user called it "utterly indecent," both to use the gravestones as a backdrop and for Trump to say what he did.
Why is Trump (and Fox) doing this with the graves as a backdrop? I thought Trump could no longer shock me. Yet he still finds a way. This is utterly indecent.
— Ernest George (@Ernest_George_) June 6, 2019
Another user said Trump's actions "solidified his spot in the scumbag hall of fame."
Every day is a new low for these people, but my god… Trump using the mother fucking graves at Normandy to attack Nancy Pelosi has solidified his spot in the scumbag hall of fame.
— justin (@MurphyFerguson) June 6, 2019
Pelosi, the House of Representatives' lead Democrat, was also in France for the ceremony, but declined to return fire on POTUS because "I don't talk about the president while I'm out of the country. That's my principle."
Pelosi declining to criticize Trump while at Normandy today: “I don’t talk about the president while I’m out of the country. That’s my principle.” pic.twitter.com/tPcaHnwK9m
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 6, 2019
However, this was far from the only gaffe to come out of the commemoration. On Wednesday, the UK Royal Family's official Twitter account accidentally referred to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as one of the representatives of Allied nations during the war, when in reality Germany was the Allies' opponent in the war, and it was German soldiers the Allies were attacking that day.
