Donald Trump faces backlash over reports he called US war dead ‘losers’

US President Donald Trump is facing criticism after it was revealed that he called American soldiers killed in action as “losers” and “suckers”.

His comments were first reported in the Atlantic magazine. However, the president and his allies have denied the remarks.

According to the Atlantic, Trump refused to visit a US cemetery outside Paris in 2018 because he said it was “filled with losers”.

Sources told the magazine that he refused to visit as the rain would disturb his hair, and h did not think to honor America’s war dead.

During the same visit, he had allegedly called 1,800 US soldiers who died at Belleau Wood as “suckers” and losers.

On the other hand, the White House had said in 2018 that the visit was canceled due to bad weather that had grounded Trump’s helicopter. This account was backed up in a recent book by President Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who has been a vocal critic of Mr. Trump.

The Associated Press claimed that it had confirmed many of such remarks.

The President’s rival Joe Biden said that his opponent was “unfit” to lead. “If the article is true – and it appears to be, based on other things he’s said – it is absolutely damning. It is a disgrace.”

Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth said that President Trump “liked to use the US military for his own ego”.

On the contrary, Mr. Trump claimed the reports are fake news. 

“To think that I would make statements negative to our military and our fallen heroes when nobody’s done what I’ve done with the budgets, with the military budgets, with getting pay raises for our military,” he said. “It is a disgraceful situation by a magazine that’s a terrible magazine.”