White House Chief of Staff John Kelly (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, at a ceremony at the Aisne Marne American Cemetery near Belleau, France, November 10, 2018. Multiple sources say Donald Trump refused to go. (Francois Mori/AP)

More sources, including former senior Administration staff, confirm Donald Trump’s “losers” and “suckers” insults of US war dead and veterans such as the late Sen. John McCain and President George H.W. Bush.

The Washington Post, Associated Press, and Trump’s favored outlet Fox News joined The Atlantic, which broke the story on Thursday.

Multiple sources said Trump refused to visit an American military cemetery near Paris on Veterans Day in 2018 because he did not want to muss his hair in the rain, and because “it is filled with losers”.

Trump called the US soldiers “suckers” for getting killed. He besmirched McCain, a prisoner of war for 5 1/2 years in North Vietnam, as a “fucking loser” and used similar language for Bush, shot down by the Japanese in World War II. Alongside Homeland Security Director and retired Marine Corps General John Kelly at the grave of Kelly’s son in Arlington National Cemetery, he asked, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

TrumpWatch, Day 1,323: Trump Called Slain US Soldiers “Losers” and “Suckers” — 1st-Hand Sources

The White House tried to quash the story with claims from Trump, Social Media Director Dan Scavino, and former Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that the Presidential helicopter in France was grounded because of weather.

But stories from The Post and AP cracked the defense. Defense Department officials and a “senior Marine Corps officer” confirmed to AP that The Atlantic article was completely true, including the passages concerning John Kelly and John McCain. The Post added the detail, citing a former senior administration official, confirmed the “losers” details and added:

The President told senior advisers that he didn’t understand why the U.S. government placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action because they had performed poorly and gotten caught and deserved what they got.

Fox News — used by Trump for the large majority of his 1-on-1 interviews — delivered the hammer blow through White House correspondent Jennifer Griffin, citing former senior officials.

When the President spoke of the Vietnam War, he said, “It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker.”

The President would say of American veterans, “What’s in it for them? They don’t make any money.”

Regarding the French trip in November 2018, a former official said Trump, upset with French President Emmanuel Macron, asked why he had to go to two cemeteries. Staff warned, “The press are going to kill you for this,” making Trump “mad as a hornet”.

Asked if the President could drive the 40 miles from Paris to the Aisne-Marne cemetery, the official said there was no security risk: “He just didn’t want to go.”

Griffin also confirmed Trump’s objection to wounded veterans being included in a July 4th parade in Washington DC in 2017: “That’s not a good look. Americans don’t like it.” And two sources said Trump objected to flags flown at half-mast after McCain’s death in 2018.

Trump reacted with fury on Twitter: “Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting.”

Biden: “They Were Not Losers”

Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden, controlling his anger, responded to Trump’s remarks by speaking of his late son Beau, who served in Kosovo and Iraq:

When my son volunteered to go to Kosovo…he wasn’t a sucker. When my son volunteered…and went to Iraq for a year and won the Bronze Star and other commendation, he wasn’t a sucker.

The service men and women he served with, particularly those who did not come home, were not losers….

The President should humbly apologize to every Gold Star mother and family and every Blue Star family whom he has denigrated and insulted.

Who the heck does he think he is?

Answering questions from reporters, he asked:

How would you feel if you had a kid in Afghanistan right now? How would you feel if you lost a son, daughter, husband, wife? How would you feel, for real?

I’ve never been as disappointed in my whole career with a leader I’ve worked with — president or otherwise. It is absolutely damnable. It is a disgrace.

Biden said he left at home a Gold Star, given to him by the Delaware National Guard to honor Beau Biden’s military service in Iraq, “because I was worried that if I focused too much on it that I would engage in some of the kind of language the President’s used”.

He summarized, “I just think it is sick. It is deplorable. It is so un-American. It is so unpatriotic.”

Trump’s Insult v. McCain’s “”Duty, Honor, Country”

More confirmations of Trump’s comments rolled in through the day. Miles Horton, a former Department of Homeland Security official, tweeted:

Far from rebutting the latest reports, Trump compounded the insult in a White House appearance on Friday afternoon. He lashed out at John Kelly, who was White House Chief of Staff after leading the Department of Homeland Security, as a possible source for the media.

He added that Kelly, in the Administration, “got eaten alive” and “was unable to handle the pressure of this job”.

Cindy McCain, the widow of John McCain, offered a far different message with photos of her late husband, his father and grandfather, and their sons: