Trump slammed for flashing smile and making ‘disgraceful’ thumbs up at soldiers’ graves

Donald Trump faced criticism after giving the thumbs up and smiling while posing for photos at the graves of soldiers killed during the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan at Arlington National Cemetery.

The former president was at the Virginia cemetery to lay a wreath on the third anniversary of the terror attack at the Abbey Gate at Kabul Airport, where 13 American servicemembers were killed.

Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox shared one image from the event on X, writing Monday that there’s no “greater sacrifice than giving one’s life in defense of our country.”

“It was my solemn privilege to stand alongside the family of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover at Arlington National Cemetery today as we paid tribute to his legacy and the 12 others who lost their lives three years ago at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan,” he added.

Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, quickly zeroed in on Trump’s “unusual” pose in the snap.

“Smiling thumbs up at the grave is unusual to say the least,” he wrote on X. “Never mind that Trump negotiated the ‘deal’ and is the reason we left.”

Trump was surrounded by relatives of the soldier, some of whom also gave a thumbs up in the photo shared by Cox.

In another photo shared by the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, Trump did the thumbs up and smiled as he stood at the grave of Nicole Gee, a sergeant. The group called it “disgraceful.”

Trump was joined for the event in Virginia by former Democratic Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, an Army Reserve officer, who endorsed the Republican nominee later on Monday.

Speaking at a National Guard Association meeting in Detroit, Michigan, on Monday, Gabbard, who ran against Vice President