Maddow Blog | Trump’s ugly attitudes toward the military come into sharp focus

In modern American politics, officeholders and candidates in both parties have tended to treat with the U.S. military with a degree of respect. It’s partly what makes Donald Trump’s antics over the last decade so extraordinary: Common sense suggests any politician who disparages those in uniform with such regular derision and contempt would face a swift and career-ending political backlash.

The former Republican president, however, has paid no price whatsoever — which, not surprisingly, has had the predictable effect of encouraging more of the misbehavior.

In his striking new piece, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg summarized the matter this way:

Quite right. If the conversation were limited to a small handful of easily forgotten gaffes, it’d be far less interesting. But Trump’s career in politics has been defined in part by his criticisms of those who wear (or who’ve worn) the uniform.

Goldberg’s piece, for example, highlights an incident in which Trump, during his White House term, offered to personally pay for the funeral services for Vanessa Guillén, a 20-year-old Army private who was killed by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood. The family took the then-president up on his offer and sent Trump a bill. Guillén’s funeral cost $60,000.

“It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f—ing Mexican!” he reportedly told his team, adding that he no longer wanted to cover the costs. The family attorney told The Atlantic that “no money was ever received by the family from Trump.”

It is, to be sure, a striking story. But I wouldn’t go so far as to describe it as surprising.

Soon after Goldberg’s piece reached the public, The New York Times published a report on new comments from former White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired four-star general.