Which veterans did Trump criticize and what were the full quotes and context?
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Executive summary
Donald Trump has directly criticized specific veterans and veterans-speaking-turned-lawmakers most recently by labeling a video by Democratic veterans in Congress “seditious behavior,” and he has a longer record of disparaging remarks about service members and veterans reported by former aides, journalists and veterans’ groups [1] [2] [3]. Coverage shows a pattern of sharp public attacks, a handful of explicit quoted lines, and substantial pushback from veterans, retired officers and advocacy groups — but some allegations rest on anonymous accounts or secondary reporting, which the sources note [4] [3].
1. Which veterans were singled out most recently and what did Trump say
The clearest recent example in the reporting is Trump’s response to a video posted by Democratic veterans in Congress in which they urged service members to refuse unlawful orders; Trump called that video “seditious behavior,” posting that characterization on his platforms and prompting condemnation from House Democratic leaders and the veterans who made the video [1]. The NPR account identifies the lawmakers who produced the video — Reps. Jason Crow, Chris DeLuzio, Maggie Hassan [Goodlander in some drafts], and Chrissy Houlahan among others — and frames Trump’s remark as a direct attack on veterans’ appeals to troops about the duty to obey only lawful orders [1].
2. The fuller context for the “seditious behavior” charge
Reporting places Trump’s comment in the immediate context of a fraught debate over whether elected veterans and national-security professionals can publicly urge troops to decline “unlawful” commands; critics say Trump’s label conflates lawful civic speech with criminal sedition, while allies argue he was defending military cohesion and denouncing what he called partisan pressure on the armed forces [1] [2]. The Guardian frames that episode as part of a broader pattern in which ex-officers warn Trump has “blurred” the line between politics and the military, and they object both to vague calls for disobedience and to Trump’s rhetorical escalation [2].
3. Reported past slurs and named quotes about veterans
Beyond the November exchange, multiple outlets and veteran advocates cite earlier reported comments attributed to Trump: former Chief of Staff John Kelly has publicly said Trump called veterans “suckers” because “there’s nothing in it from them,” a charge Kelly repeated in later retellings and documented timelines of Trump’s interactions with service members [3]. Journalistic compendia and watchdog pieces also recall long-standing incidents — for example, Trump’s 2015 dismissal of Sen. John McCain’s service record and other episodes in which families of fallen soldiers and veterans said they were insulted — though some historical claims rely on contemporaneous reporting and former aides’ recollections rather than on verbatim, contemporaneous transcripts [4] [5].
4. Other notable quoted incidents and the available sourcing
Reporting highlights a 2017 Memorial Day moment attributed to Trump — “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” — supposedly said to John Kelly when discussing graves at Arlington, offered by critics as evidence of dismissive rhetoric toward the fallen; that anecdote appears in advocacy and watchdog summaries that draw on former staff testimony [6]. Trump’s public Veterans Day remarks in 2025 — “We don’t like being politically correct, so we’re not going to be politically correct anymore” — show a different rhetorical register, where he publicly boasts of eschewing deference while honoring military strength [7].
5. How veterans and institutions have reacted, and limits of the record
Veterans’ groups, retired officers and individual lawmakers have openly rebuked Trump’s comments and warned about politicizing the armed forces, while other veterans and allied organizations have defended him or criticized the critics; the Guardian and Military.com pieces document a wave of pushback and counter-videos produced by veteran networks defending targets like Sen. Mark Kelly and warning of threats including court-martial talk [2] [8]. Importantly, several of the most inflammatory personal-attribute claims (for example, “suckers” or “losers”) stem from former aides’ recollections or aggregated timelines rather than contemporaneous taped statements, and source outlets note those provenance issues even as they report the quotes [3] [4].