United States President Donald Trump confronted a political crisis on Friday that could undercut badly needed support in the military community for his re-election campaign, as he sought to dispute a report that he privately referred to American soldiers killed in combat as "losers" and "suckers".
Mr Trump, who has long portrayed himself as a champion of the armed forces and has boasted of rebuilding a military depleted after years of overseas wars, came under intense fire from Democrats and other opponents who said a report in The Atlantic demonstrated his actual contempt for those who serve their country in uniform.
The President's foes organised conference calls, blasted out statements, flocked to television studios and quickly posted advertising online calling attention to the reported comments.
At a news conference, previous VP Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, grew emotional as he stated that his son Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015, "wasn't a sucker" for serving in the army in Iraq.
"How would you feel if you had a kid in Afghanistan right now?" Mr Biden said. "How would you feel if you lost a son, daughter, husband, wife? How would you feel, for real?"
He called the reported comments "disgusting", "sick", "deplorable", "un-American" and "absolutely damnable".
"I've just never been as disappointed in my whole career with a leader that I've worked with, president or otherwise," he added.
Mr Trump denied that he made the remarks repeatedly over the course of the day and rallied current and previous aides who backed him up on the record.
"It's a fake story and it's a disgrace that they're allowed to do it," he told newsmen in the Oval Office, insisting that he respected the troops.
"To me, they're heroes," he said.
"It's even hard to believe how they could do it. And I say that, the level of bravery, and to me, they're absolute heroes."
The furore came at a time of rising tension between the commander-in-chief and the military leadership over his use of troops against protesters on American streets, his refusal to rename bases named for Confederate generals, and his clemency for accused and convicted war criminals.
A new poll by The Military Times showed Mr Biden leading Mr Trump41 per cent to 37 per centamong active-duty troops, a stark departure from the military's longstanding support for Republicans and a danger sign for the President.
Recognising that, the President sought to smooth over friction with some in the military by abruptly reversing course last Friday afternoon and announcing that his administration would not be closing Stars and Stripes, the venerable military newspaper, by the end of the month after all.
While current and previous officials could not confirm some of the specifics in The Atlantic's account, they did verify that Mr Trump resisted supporting an official funeral and lowering flags after the death of Senator John McCain of Arizona, a Vietnam War hero whose military service he had disparaged.
And Mr Trump's assertion on Friday that "I never called John a loser" was belied by video and Twitter recording him doing just that in 2015.
Moreover, people familiar with Mr Trump's private conversations say he has long scorned those who served in Vietnam as being too dumb to have got out of it, as he did through a medical diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels. At other times, Mr Trump has expressed bewilderment that people choose military service over making money.
Some also recalled him asking why the US should be so interested in finding captured soldiers, a comment made in the context of Mr McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Another previous official said Mr Trump often expressed discomfort around people who had been injured, although he has held events with wounded veterans.
The President privately raged about The Atlantic's article and advisers panicked about how to counter it. They feared it was the beginning of a constant drip of negative stories from disenchanted previous officials that could sway voters.
The potential for damage was clear by 9.04am, barely 15 hours after the article was published, when VoteVets, a liberal veterans organization that has long been critical of Mr Trump, released an online advertisement featuring the parents of troops slain in Iraq and Afghanistan, each declaring that their son or stepson was not a "loser" or "sucker".
The report by The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said that Mr Trump decided against visiting a cemetery for American soldiers killed in World War I during a 2018 visit to France because the rain would have mussed his hair and he did not deem it important to honour the war dead.
The report by The Atlantic magazine said that during a trip to France in 2018, US President Donald Trump cancelled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery (above) near Paris, for American soldiers killed in World War I, because the rain would have mussed his hair and he did not deem it important to honour the war dead. PHOTO:
The article cited "four people with first-hand knowledge of the discussion that day", but did not name them.
During a conversation with senior officials that day, according to the magazine, Mr Trump said: "Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers." On the same trip, the article said, he referred to American Marines slain in combat at Belleau Wood as "suckers" for getting killed.
The article also said Mr Trump resisted honouring Mr McCain after the senator's death in August 2018. "We're not going to support that loser's funeral," the article quotes Mr Trump telling his staff.
For the White House, it was a full-court defence. "I've never heard the President use the language that assertively is said in that article about him calling military suckers and losers," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News. Even First Lady Melania Trump weighed in, asserting that the "story is not true".
NYTIMES