Trump Losing The Military Vote, A Traditional Republican Bloc
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s numerous lies on military issues, from claims of delivering historic pay raises to providing brand new ships and planes, do not appear to be working with service members, with polling suggesting he could lose this traditional Republican voting bloc this November.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads Trump, 41% to 37%, in a survey of more than 1,000 subscribers to the Military Times. Trump held a 20-percentage-point lead over Hillary Clinton in the same poll before the 2016 election.
In the recent survey, Trump may even have caught a break because it was taken several weeks before Thursday’s Atlantic magazine article revealed new details of his disdain for those who serve in the military. Trump called service members who get injured or killed “suckers” and “losers,” according to the article, and he called off a planned 2018 visit to a cemetery in France where 1,800 World War I US troops are buried because he didn’t want the rain to ruin his hair.
The weak polling numbers for Trump also were recorded despite his repeated claims that he has done more for the military than any previous president, including providing “brand new” ships, planes, tanks and rockets, the largest budgets, the highest pay raises and programs like VA Choice, which lets veterans seek private doctors if the wait periods at Veterans Affairs clinics and hospitals are too long.
“I got soldiers brand new equipment, brand new jets, brand new rockets, brand new ― $2.5 trillion. I did more for the military than any president that’s ever had this office,” he told Fox News in July.
“I’ve done more, I think, than almost anybody to help our military, to get the budgets of our military, to get the pay raises for our military,” Trump said again late Thursday night on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrew after returning from a rally near Pittsburgh.
In fact, each one of his claims is at best an exaggeration and at worst a lie. While his total...
