Did Trump call people who served in the military suckers and losers?
Executive summary
Reporting from multiple outlets traces the allegation that Donald Trump called U.S. service members—dead and living—“suckers” and “losers” to a 2020 Atlantic story that cited multiple sources and to later confirmations and denials: former White House chief of staff John Kelly said Trump made such remarks, The Atlantic and other outlets reported the specific cemetery and Belleau Wood comments, Trump has consistently denied the claims, and some viral videos on the topic have been debunked or altered [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. The origin: a multi-source Atlantic report and what it claimed
The widely cited starting point is a September 2020 Atlantic article that reported, based on interviews with multiple current and former administration officials, that Trump referred to American war dead at a cemetery near Paris as “losers” and “suckers” and separately called Marines who died at Belleau Wood “suckers” for having been killed in action [1] [5].
2. Corroboration and who said what: John Kelly and other sources
John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, later publicly stated that Trump did call fallen soldiers “losers” and “suckers,” and other senior military and defense officials speaking on background told the Associated Press and Military Times they had direct knowledge of or were informed about the comments, strengthening the claim’s sourcing even as it relied on anonymous accounts [2] [1].
3. Denials, political repetition, and campaign use
Trump has repeatedly denied ever making those remarks and his allies have disputed the reporting since 2020, while political opponents—most notably then-candidate Joe Biden and his campaign—repeated the allegation during 2023–2024 campaign messaging and debates, illustrating how the claim moved from investigative reporting into political argumentation [3] [5].
4. Media verification and the problem of altered content
Fact-checkers have documented instances of altered or parody video content that falsely depict Trump making insulting remarks directly on air, and Reuters and other outlets warned that some viral clips are manipulated; these debunked videos complicate public understanding by creating easily shareable but unreliable “proof” that does not substitute for the original sourced reporting [4].
5. What the record supports and where uncertainty remains
The record in reputable reporting supports that multiple officials and Trump’s former chief of staff have said Trump used the words “suckers” and “losers” to describe some service members or the war dead on specific occasions, but much of the contemporaneous corroboration is based on anonymous or secondhand accounts rather than an on-the-record eyewitness transcript, leaving room for dispute over precise wording, context, and whether certain reporters or aides witnessed comments firsthand [1] [3].
6. Interpretations, motivations, and institutional responses
Supporters of the reporting argue the consistency of multiple sources and later confirmations by ex-staffers make the allegation credible and indicative of contempt toward service, while defenders point to denials and to the lack of an on-the-record tape as reasons to reject the charge; meanwhile, congressional and veteran leaders publicly criticized the reported comments when they surfaced, showing institutional and political consequences regardless of the evidentiary gaps [6] [7].
7. Bottom line: did he call them that?
Based on the available public reporting, credible journalists and former senior officials assert that Trump used the epithets “suckers” and “losers” in reference to some U.S. service members or the war dead on specific occasions, and Trump denies it; because much corroboration relies on named former officials and anonymous sources rather than an original audio or contemporaneous on-the-record transcript, the factual conclusion supported by sources is that the comments were reported and corroborated by insiders but remain contested by Trump and his allies [1] [2] [4] [3].