What exactly did The Atlantic report about Trump and U.S. service members in 2020?
Executive summary
The Atlantic reported in 2020 that President Donald Trump had repeatedly disparaged U.S. service members — including calling American war dead “suckers” and “losers” — and that he had questioned the value of soldiers who were captured or killed, citing multiple conversations and incidents documented by the magazine [1][2]. The story was based on interviews with several people with firsthand knowledge and prompted swift denials from the White House and political backlash that elevated the report into a national controversy [1][3].
1. The core allegations: blunt language about the fallen and captured
The Atlantic’s central claim was that Trump used demeaning language about U.S. service members on more than one occasion, including a reported remark that the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France was “filled with losers” and that Marines who died at Belleau Wood were “suckers” for getting killed, and that he questioned why the government went to great lengths to recover remains of service members [1][2].
2. How The Atlantic reported it: anonymous firsthand sources
The magazine attributed the account to multiple people “with firsthand knowledge,” a formulation highlighted in subsequent coverage; reporting outlets and summaries of the piece noted that the claims came from people who said they had been present for the conversations or had direct knowledge of the events, rather than named documents or on-the-record presidential admissions [1][2].
3. Specific incidents the article cited
The Atlantic detailed a 2018 trip to France in which Trump allegedly declined to visit a World War I cemetery, reportedly calling it “filled with losers,” and it also reported discussions in which he referred to U.S. Marines from Belleau Wood as “suckers” for having died in battle; the piece also referenced a Memorial Day 2017 Arlington Cemetery remark — attributed by The Atlantic to a senior Marine Corps officer and corroborated to other outlets — in which Trump reportedly asked John Kelly, whose son was killed in Afghanistan, “What was in it for them?” [1][2].
4. Immediate responses: denials and political attack lines
The White House and Trump himself denied the Atlantic’s reporting; Trump tweeted that he “never called our great fallen soldiers anything other than HEROES” and labeled the article “fake news,” while administration officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said they had never heard the president use the language reported [1]. The story became fodder for the 2020 campaign: Democratic surrogates and veterans criticized Trump sharply, and the Biden campaign sought to use the allegations to underscore a contrast on respect for the military [3].
5. Media amplification and corroboration in other outlets
Mainstream outlets including Military Times and other national papers picked up and summarized The Atlantic’s allegations, reporting the same key phrases and noting additional confirmation from defense or former-administration officials who spoke to reporters; coverage underscored how the Atlantic piece shaped the national conversation about the president’s relationship with the military and military families [2][3].
6. Limits of the public record and outstanding questions
The Atlantic’s reporting relied on unnamed sources with “firsthand knowledge,” and subsequent coverage documented denials without producing public, on-the-record confirmations from the president or contemporaneous written evidence in the public domain; therefore what is publicly available are sourced journalistic accounts and rebuttals rather than incontrovertible documentary proof released into the public record [1][2]. Alternative interpretations exist — defenders insisted the president respects the military and denied the quotes — but the journalistic record as cited by The Atlantic and reproduced by other outlets is that multiple sources described the disparaging language and incidents [1][2].