Trump aide ‘pushed’ Arlington cemetery employee who tried to enforce rules, Army says

An aide to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump “abruptly pushed aside” an Arlington National Cemetery employee who tried to ensure that Trump and his entourage adhered to federal laws and policies that “clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds,” a U.S. Army spokesperson said Thursday.

The spokesperson said that the pushing incident — which occurred before Trump and family members of slain Marines posed for photos after he laid flowers at two gravesites at Arlington’s Section 60 — led to military police being notified but “the employee subsequently decided not to press charges.”

“Therefore, the Army considers this matter closed,” said the spokesperson. The Army oversees Arlington’s operations.

The spokesperson said that participants in Trump’s visit to Arlington and the visit to Section 60 graves were made aware of laws barring political activities on military cemetery grounds, such as Arlington.

Section 60 is an area of the cemetery where some service members killed in Afghanistan and Iraq are buried, and where recording is typically restricted.

Nonetheless, former president Trump and campaign officials have posted several videos of the former president at the cemetery to his social media accounts, including a video on TikTok.

Trump’s campaign earlier this week claimed the cemetery employee who tried to make sure he and others complied with the ban on political activities was suffering from a mental health episode and was “despicable.”

The Army called out the Trump camp’s efforts to smear the cemetery employee in an unusually direct public statement.

“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked,” the spokesperson said.

“ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve,” the spokesperson said.

Two Defense officials told NBC News that military police arrived on the scene while the Trump motorcade was still on site and wrote up the incident but they did not get a formal statement from Trump’s team.

Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said the Arlington employee initiated the physical altercation.

“False. Not even remotely true and this person is a liar,” Cheung told NBC News, referring to the employee’s claims of having been pushed.

“This individual was the one who initiated physical contact and verbal harassment that was unwarranted and unnecessary,” Cheung said.

Unnamed military officials told the New York Times on Wednesday that the employee who filed an incident report declined to press charges in fear of retaliation from Trump’s supporters.

The incident, first reported by NPR, occurred during Trump’s visit to commemorate the third anniversary of the death of 13 U.S. service members killed in the Abbey Gate attacks at Kabul’s airport during the 2021 evacuation of Afghanistan.

NBC News obtained the rules that Arlington Cemetery provided to the Trump campaign ahead of his visit, which included the restrictions to photography for partisan political purposes. The rules also stated that “gravesite visits by families and guests will follow ANC’s established policies for Section 60.”

Cheung said in a post on X that the Trump campaign was allowed to have a photographer at the cemetery.

“There was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Cheung said in a statement Tuesday, denying accounts of the incident.

“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” Cheung said.

But Trump’s campaign since that statement has not released any footage contradicting the account provided by the Army spokesperson or sources.

A spokesman for the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris told CNN on Wednesday that the altercation was “pretty sad.”

“Donald Trump is a person who wants to make everything all about Donald Trump. He’s also somebody who has a history of demeaning and degrading military service members, those who have given the ultimate sacrifice,” said Tyler.

— NBC News’ Rebecca Shabad contributed reporting.