A U.S. president’s visit to an air force base where flag-draped caskets arrive during the transfer of American troops killed abroad is usually a somber occasion.
So are the times when the president is briefed in national security meetings, with details that can lead to life-or-death decisions.
A group raising political donations for President Donald J. Trump has combined both of those moments into a mass fund-raising email.
The group, Never Surrender, sent out an email on Thursday with an official photograph of Mr. Trump wearing a white campaign baseball cap and saluting as coffins holding six Army Reservists killed by an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait were brought off a plane at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on March 7.
The email said Mr. Trump was “opening up spots on the National Security Briefing Membership,” and that people signing up would get the “get the inside scoop DIRECT” from the president and receive his “private national security briefings, unfiltered updates on the threats facing America.” National security briefings often involve classified information.
The email touting the “extremely limited” spots has links to a Never Surrender donation website for Mr. Trump.
It went on to say: “I’m the strong commander who stares down tyrants, obliterates terrorists, and never backs down. This is for patriots ready to stand with that kind of unbreakable strength. Nor for the weak or wavering.”
The email drew attention after posts with images of it appeared on social media accounts, including that of a Huffington Post journalist. CNN reported on the email on Friday.
Never Surrender Inc., is a registered political fund-raising group that has roots in Mr. Trump’s 2024 president campaign. An email requesting comment that The New York Times sent to the contact address listed on the fund-raising email was not answered. The White House and Republican National Committee did not return requests for comment.
The email has drawn condemnation from some Democratic officials and lawmakers.
On Saturday, the Democratic lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued a statement saying that “Trump never misses a chance to make a quick buck off the backs of the American people, even if it means turning a dignified transfer of fallen service members into a fund-raising opportunity. Deeply shameful.”
The press office of Gavin Newsom, the governor of California and a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2028, said in an online post that “Donald Trump is fund-raising off of dead soldiers.”
The post added: “He is a deeply SICK and DISGUSTING MAN!”
Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey, a former State Department official, wrote online that “I hope the donors’ national security briefing doesn’t skip the ‘Iran will close the Strait of Hormuz’ section that Trump and Hegseth missed.”
Mr. Kim was referring to the failure so far of the Pentagon to ward off Iranian attacks in a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman. In retaliation for the initial assault by the United States and Israel, Iranian forces have been firing projectiles across the region and at oil tankers trying to cross the strait to go eastward. That has caused a halt in tanker traffic, and crude oil prices have surged since the start of the war on Feb. 28.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration had misjudged the extent of the Iranian retaliation in the war and that some aides were now pessimistic about the lack of a clear strategy for the war, but have been careful not to tell Mr. Trump.
At least 13 American service members have been killed in the war, along with hundreds of Iranian soldiers and civilians. The six Army reservists who were the first U.S. fatalities died in Kuwait when an Iranian drone hit Shuaiba port. A seventh American service member later died of injuries from that attack.
The occasion when the bodies of dead troops first arrive in caskets in the United States, usually at Dover Air Force Base, is called a dignified transfer. It is typically attended by family members and senior U.S. officials. The military calls it a “solemn movement,” in which uniformed troops carry the coffins across the tarmac. President Barack Obama lifted a ban on news media coverage of it in 2009.
Edward Wong reports on global affairs, U.S. foreign policy and the State Department for The Times.
The post Fund-raising Email Features Trump at Ritual for Soldiers Killed in Iran War appeared first on New York Times.
