🇺🇸 A Memorial Day Message from Veterans to Trump and the Republicans: You’ve Defiled Our Sacrifice
From the Beaches of Normandy to the Sands of Kandahar, We Know What Fascism Looks Like—And We See It in You
MEMORIAL DAY, 2025
To Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party,
We are veterans.
Of Normandy and Iwo Jima. Of Inchon and Khe Sanh. Of Fallujah and Kandahar. Of black ops and peacekeeping missions, Cold War standoffs and drone command centers. We served in uniform from the beaches of the Pacific to the mountains of Afghanistan, from the jungles of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq. We have seen battle and buried brothers and sisters. We have fought not for parties, but for principles.
And we are furious.
We wore this nation’s uniform. We lost blood, limbs, and years of our lives to defend the ideals of democracy, liberty, and a Constitution built to withstand the ambitions of tyrants.
And this Memorial Day, we are not silent.
This day is meant to honor the fallen. But we refuse to let the living desecrate their memory. What your party is doing to this country dishonors every flag-draped coffin we’ve saluted. Every family that folded a flag and wept. Every last American who gave their life believing they were protecting something sacred.
You—Donald Trump—have spent your life mocking sacrifice. You dodged the draft with phony ailments while others answered the call. You called POWs “losers” and dismissed Gold Star families. You stood over American graves in Europe and asked, “What was in it for them?”
What was in it for them? The answer is everything you’ve never understood—duty, honor, sacrifice.
You are not a commander-in-chief. You are a disgraced showman with a bloated sense of grandeur and a coward’s soul.
And now, in your second term, you haven’t just doubled down—you’ve declared war on the very institutions that hold this republic together. You’ve gutted the Department of Justice and weaponized it against your critics. You’ve hijacked the military, turning soldiers into pawns in your political theater. You’ve handed entire federal agencies to ideological loyalists and unelected extremists from Project 2025, whose mission is not governance—it’s domination.
You’ve criminalized protest and dissent. You’ve empowered Christian nationalists to rewrite civil law, education standards, and public health policy to reflect their theocratic worldview. You’ve purged public servants who refused to swear loyalty to you personally. You’ve unleashed attacks on journalists, branded the free press as “the enemy of the people,” and laid the groundwork for state-run propaganda. You’ve pushed mass deportations, internment camps, and loyalty oaths. You’ve openly called for the jailing political opponents and “re-educating” their supporters.
You haven’t saved America. You’re strangling it—one institution, one agency, one freedom at a time.
And to the Republican Party that enables you: shame on you.
You once stood for national defense, for service, for the rule of law. Now you spew conspiracy theories about “deep state generals.” You preach patriotism, then vote against healthcare for veterans. You wave flags while voting to cut food aid, housing programs, and suicide prevention support for the men and women who wore the uniform.
You shout, “USA! USA!” while disgracing everything we fought for.
You love our wars but abandon our warriors.
You sell t-shirts that say “Support the Troops,” then cheered for a man who praises Putin, ridicules Zelenskyy, and tries to drag us out of NATO while Russian missiles light up the skies of Europe.
You stayed silent when he called for martial law. When he tried to install loyalists at the Pentagon to override the election. When he summoned a mob to ransack the Capitol. When that mob beat officers with flagpoles, built gallows, and hunted down elected leaders. You watched him try to destroy democracy—and you applauded.
You weren’t defending America. You were helping him torch it.
Memorial Day is not for the politicians who grandstand beside tanks. It’s not for the opportunists who chant “America First” while cozying up to dictators. It’s not for the fair-weather patriots who love this country only when they’re in charge.
We didn't fight to install strongmen. We didn't bleed to see an American president praise dictators. We didn't sacrifice so billionaires could dodge taxes while homeless vets sleep on park benches.
Memorial Day is for the fallen. And we will not let you speak for them.
If they could speak, they would not cheer what you’ve done. They would not salute the flags at your rallies. They would not kneel to your cult of personality.
They died fighting fascism. You are helping it rise again.
We know what authoritarianism looks like. We fought it in the fields of Europe, the jungles of Asia, the deserts of the Middle East. We know the signs. And we see them now—in you.
The country we risked our lives for is under siege. And the enemy is not wearing camouflage. He’s wearing a red hat.
But we remember what this country is supposed to be. And we will not let you burn it down without a fight.
You dishonor the dead.
You disgrace the living.
And we’re done pretending you deserve respect.
Signed,
Veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and U.S. Peacekeeping Operations — and all those who served in defense of liberty, at home and abroad.
This Memorial Day, we honor the fallen by naming the enemy.
And the enemy is within.
Note: This letter is written in the voice of American veterans for rhetorical and moral effect. It is a work of commentary and not authored by any specific veteran or veterans' organization.
Undermining Those Who Served: Trump and the GOP’s Anti-Veteran Agenda
The following GOP actions betray the trust, dignity, and needs of America’s veterans and military community—from healthcare to housing, from battlefield to home front, from sacrifice to survival.
VA Healthcare Funding and Services
Slashed $900 billion from Medicaid and $500 billion from Medicare, jeopardizing coverage for over 10 million veterans.
Repeatedly attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which had reduced the uninsured rate among veterans by nearly 40%.
Pushed for the privatization of VA care; ousted the VA Secretary for resisting it, risking the dismantling of the specialized, veteran-focused system in favor of profit-driven private providers.
Allowed non-military Trump allies at Mar-a-Lago to exert unauthorized influence over VA policy.
In 2025, imposed a federal hiring freeze, rescinded job offers, and fired 2,400+ VA employees—many of them veterans.
Announced plans to eliminate 80,000 VA jobs and close 17 VA hospitals, despite growing demand for services.
Terminated cancer registries and suicide prevention programs amid staffing reductions.
Senate Republicans blocked the bipartisan PACT Act in 2022, delaying urgently needed care for veterans exposed to burn pits and toxic substances.
Eliminated requirements for federal contractors to disclose violations of veteran labor protections under VEVRAA, increasing the risk of discrimination against veteran employees.
Terminated over 1,000 probationary VA employees, including researchers focused on mental health, addiction recovery, cancer, prosthetics, and burn pit exposure.
Fired VA Inspector General Michael J. Missal, undermining oversight and accountability.
Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
The Trump-era VA failed to spend 99% of its suicide prevention outreach budget in FY2018, despite veteran suicide rates remaining dangerously high.
Left the VA’s suicide prevention office leaderless for months, stalling lifesaving outreach.
Trump on PTSD sufferers: “When you talk about the mental health problems… they’re strong, but a lot of people can’t handle it.”
Republican-led states refused Medicaid expansion, blocking mental health coverage for tens of thousands of low-income and at-risk veterans.
Proposed budgets included over $150 billion in cuts to veteran services, including mental health, housing, and job training programs.
Disability Benefits and Claims Processing
Attempted to terminate "Individual Unemployability" benefits for 225,000 elderly disabled veterans, risking homelessness and financial ruin for those who can’t work.
Approved over $24 billion in cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), which supports more than 600,000 veterans with disabilities.
Project 2025 explicitly calls for mass reviews and reductions of existing disability benefits, aiming to strip support from veterans deemed “no longer disabled enough.”
Plans to cut 80,000+ VA jobs and reduce claims processing staff, while automating workflows, will drastically delay disability determinations.
Implemented policies leading to the dismissal of over 6,000 veterans from federal jobs, many of whom were disabled and relied on those roles for stability.
Veteran Housing and Homelessness Programs
Cut $460 million from a key VA homeless veteran program in 2017—only reversing course after public outrage.
Froze HUD-VASH housing vouchers and slashed rental assistance in proposed budgets.
Denied eviction protections for veterans with VA-backed mortgages during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Allowed veteran homelessness reduction efforts to stall after years of progress under the Obama administration.
Proposed budgets repeatedly targeted HUD programs supporting veteran housing stability.
Redirected nearly $1 billion from housing immigrant programs to a proposed "National Center for Warrior Independence," criticized as a political stunt rather than a solution.
Support for Military Families and Active-Duty Service Members
A GOP tax bill raised taxes on Gold Star children by thousands of dollars per family.
Proposed massive cuts to SNAP, WIC, TANF, and school nutrition—programs relied on by over 1.3 million veteran and military households.
Diverted $3.6 billion from military construction—including schools and hospitals on U.S. bases—to fund the border wall.
GOP-led states blocked license reciprocity for military spouses, leaving many jobless for months after relocations.
Implemented the “Deploy or Get Out” policy, forcing the discharge of service members non-deployable for 12 consecutive months, disproportionately affecting disabled, recovering, and chronically ill personnel.
Appointed Pentagon spokespersons and officials with histories of antisemitic and conspiratorial rhetoric, undermining trust and morale among diverse military personnel.
Military Readiness, Personnel Treatment, and Political Misuse
On fallen soldiers: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
On dead Marines at Belleau Wood: “Suckers.”
On POW and war hero John McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
On wounded veterans: “I don’t want to see them. It doesn’t look good for me.”
To generals: “You’re all losers. You don’t know how to win anymore.” And: “Why can’t you be like the German generals under Hitler?”
On military service generally: “What was in it for them?”
On Gold Star mother Ghazala Khan: “She had nothing to say. Maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.”
To Gold Star widow Myeshia Johnson: “He knew what he signed up for.”
Deployed troops to the southern border for a migrant “caravan” photo op just before the 2018 midterms.
Used the National Guard and federal law enforcement to violently clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square in 2020 so he could stage a photo-op with a Bible.
Pardoned service members convicted of war crimes, over the objections of military justice officials.
Allowed Senator Tommy Tuberville to block 300+ military promotions for months over abortion policy, leaving major commands leaderless and harming readiness.
Ordered the removal of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) materials from the Department of Defense, deleting tributes to the Tuskegee Airmen, Navajo Code Talkers, and other historically marginalized service members.
Texas’s “Operation Lone Star” mobilized National Guard units for political theater, resulting in suicides, delayed pay, poor conditions, and mass confusion.
Florida’s Governor deployed National Guard troops to assist in partisan stunts, including migrant transports across state lines.
Fired over 17 Inspectors General across multiple departments, including those overseeing military and veteran affairs, weakening oversight and accountability.
Granted DOGE members access to VA databases, including sensitive medical records, raising serious privacy concerns.
Banned transgender Americans from military service, despite objections from top military leaders, the medical community, and opposition from the majority of active-duty personnel.
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I just sent this message to my senators and my congressman. It will be interesting to see how they respond. I hope everyone who reads the letter sends a copy to their "representatives." Local reps are next on my list. Rich S, Octogenarian and Contrarian and trying to flood the zone
Although I am not a veteran this article brought me to tears. It is truly despicable and heartbreaking to see the way our country is being run into the ground with no respect for t he constitution or the brave men and women who defend it.