'Pathetic': Donald Trump Slammed for Smiling and Giving Thumbs Up at Fallen Marine's Grave

Donald Trump faced backlash after he gave a thumbs up next to a U.S. Marine's grave at Arlington National Cemetery.

On Monday, August 26, the former POTUS attended an event honoring 13 fallen servicemembers who tragically died in a 2021 terror attack in Kabul, Afghanistan.

"There is no greater sacrifice than giving one’s life in defense of our country," Utah Governor Spencer Cox wrote via X on Monday.

"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 continued. "I am grateful today, and every day, for those who serve and defend our freedoms at home and abroad."

Attached to the post were two photos — one of a memorial site and another of Trump grinning wide and flashing a thumbs up sign while standing just behind Hoover's headstone. Several other people in the photo also appeared to copy the 78-year-old's pose by putting their thumbs up for the snapshot.

As the photo made rounds on social media, CNN political commentator and Air National Guard officer Adam Kinzinger said: "Smiling thumbs up at the grave is unusual to say the least."

Political pundit Ron Filipkowski also commented on the perplexing image.

"Would it ever occur to any normal human to stand over the grave of a fallen Marine at Arlington with a big grin on your face and your thumb up to take a photo so it could benefit you personally?" he wrote on X. "Who the f--- would do something like that?"

Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!

Others Trump critics took to the comments section to slam the controversial politician as "pathetic," with one even claiming he was a "complete psychopath."

Another X user said, "I have no words to describe the disgust and anger I feel seeing Donald Trump smile and give the thumbs up next to the grave of one of our fallen heroes."

A separate critic added, "Last time I checked this man refers to our honored dead as 'suckers' so it doesn’t shock me in the slightest him having no concept of proper decorum."

The commenter was referring to the reports that a four-star general once heard Trump supposedly calling fallen military members "suckers" and "losers."

During his campaign for the 2016 election, Trump also made insulting comments about late Senator John McCain, who was a prisoner of war at a North Vietnamese prison for roughly five years during his military service.

"He’s not a war hero," Trump said at the time. "He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured."