What Arlington National Cemetery rules say about politicizing grounds

The Trump campaign has blamed Arlington National Cemetery for a confrontation during former President Trump’s visit there Monday.

The incident occurred when a photographer walked around the cemetery with Trump, sparking concerns about violations of restrictions on political activities in military cemeteries.

According to Arlington National Cemetery’s media policy, filming and photographing is not authorized “for partisan, political or fundraising purposes, in accordance with the Hatch Act.”

The Hatch Act is a federal law that restricts the political activity of individuals employed by executive agencies and those who work for programs financed by federal loans and grants.

In a statement, the cemetery confirmed an incident occurred and a report was filed but did not provide additional information.

“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the cemetery said in a statement.

“Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants. We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.”

Additionally, services and ceremonies at the Army National Military Cemeteries may not include partisan political activities, according to the Army Public Affairs Program handbook.

Military installations cannot be used by incumbents or “office-seeking candidates, their staff members, or their campaign representatives for political campaign or election events,” including public assemblies or town halls, meetings, speeches, press conferences, or fundraisers, the handbook said.

The Trump incident was first reported by NPR. On Monday, he attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark the third anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

The outlet reported a cemetery official tried to stop Trump staffers from filming and photographing an area dedicated to soldiers who were recently killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, known as Section 60. NPR’s source said Trump staffers pushed the official aside when they tried to stop campaign staff from entering the area.

The Trump campaign has denied there was any physical altercation.

“That fact is that a private photographer was permitted to 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,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.

After the wreath-laying ceremony, Trump walked to Section 60 with some family members of some of the 13 U.S. service members killed at the Kabul airport. That section of the ceremony was closed to the press, but Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) posted a photo with Trump and some family members who gave a thumbs-up.

Trump posted a video on TikTok using footage from Monday, captioning the video “should have never happened,” referring to the Kabul attack.

Some veterans were alarmed about the incident. VoteVets, a progressive organization that works to elect veterans, shared a screenshot of the TikTok, criticizing Trump for the incident and video.

“And there you go. Donald Trump is using footage and photos his campaign took at Arlington National Cemetery for political purposes — against the rules and law that govern this hallowed ground,” VoteVets said.

“This whole episode is sickening and [an] affront to all those hundreds of thousands of families who never agreed to allow their deceased loved ones to be dragged into politics.”