One of two staffers involved in the altercation at Arlington National Cemetery is a deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump’s reelection bid, NPR has learned. The former president insisted this week the incident did not happen, highlighting a growing disconnect between the messaging of the candidate and his campaign. NPR is identifying both staffers after the campaign’s conflicting responses to the incident last week outside Section 60 of the cemetery, where many casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.
The two staffers, according to a source with knowledge of the incident, are deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Trump’s advance team.
Caporale is a one time aide to former first lady Melania Trump who left the White House to work for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis before returning to the Trump campaign. He was also listed as the on-site contact and project manager for the Women for America First rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021 where Trump urged the crowd to “stop the steal” before some of them stormed the U.S. Capitol.
After Trump participated in a wreath laying ceremony on the third anniversary of the deadly bombing at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan that killed 13 U.S. service members, Trump visited Section 60 at the invitation of some family members and friends of the fallen soldiers.
ANC rules, that had been made clear to the Trump campaign in advance, say that only an official Arlington photographer can take pictures or film in Section 60. When an ANC employee tried to enforce the rules, she was verbally abused by the two Trump campaign operatives, according to a source with knowledge of the incident. Picard then pushed her out of the way according to two Pentagon officials.
The campaign’s conflicting messaging on the incident
After NPR first reported the altercation last week, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said they were “prepared to release footage” of the incident, and attacked the Arlington employee as someone “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.” Cheung also said they were granted access to have a photographer present, and pointed to a statement from Gold Star family members that invited Trump to attend the ceremony.
The campaign also released a TikTok video that included video footage from Section 60, including a smiling Trump flashing a thumbs up with family members at the gravesites. But other tombstones are visible in the picture, and at least one family of a fallen Green Beret has confirmed they did not give permission for his grave to be filmed or used in a campaign ad.
The Army released a statement last Thursday acknowledging that a cemetery employee “was abruptly pushed aside” and the campaign was warned ahead of time of the prohibition against photography and political activities at Arlington. The Army said the cemetery employee tried to de-escalate the situation after she was pushed, in hopes of not upsetting the Gold Star families in attendance.
The Army said a police report of the incident was filed, but that the employee had declined to press charges, and that the Army considered the matter closed, but added that “the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”
When NPR emailed both Caporale and Picard, Cheung responded, “I see you've been emailing some of our team members…As the Army has said, they consider this matter closed. President Trump was there to support the Gold Star families and honor the sacrifices their loved ones made.”
Cheung also included a social media post that shows a Biden campaign ad from 2020 that used images of the then-vice president at the cemetery in 2010.
Neither Cheung, Picard or Caporale responded to emailed requests for comment as of publication time. Reached by phone, Caporale referred questions to Cheung. The Trump campaign has still not followed through on its pledge to release video of the incident, despite repeated requests from NPR.
This week, Trump contradicted his own campaign with a post on Truth Social falsely calling the confrontation a “made up story by Comrade Kamala and her misinformation squad” that attacked Harris and Biden for not attending the private ceremony.
In an interview on Sean Hannity’s radio show Tuesday, Trump reiterated the false assertion that nothing happened at the cemetery, questioning the motives of the unnamed employee and downplaying the accusations as attacks over “publicity.”
“Do you notice that the person represented now doesn’t want to talk, he doesn’t want to speak or talk?” Trump asked, mislabeling the employee as male. “The nice thing, the beautiful thing, was all the parents and relatives got together and they said ‘That’s a false story, it was totally false.’”
Former President Trump polls well among veterans, and has many vocal supporters with military ties. Some of the family members who invited him to Arlington also spoke at the Republican National Convention, bashing Biden and vocally endorsing Trump.
"Joe Biden may have forgotten that our children died, but we have not forgotten — Donald Trump has not forgotten," said Cheryl Juels in Milwaukee at the RNC in July. Juels is the aunt of Sgt. Nicole Gee, one of the service members killed at Abbey Gate in 2021, during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.
"Joe Biden owes the men and women that served in Afghanistan a debt of gratitude and an apology. Donald Trump loves this country and will never forget the sacrifice and bravery of our service members," she added. "Join us in putting him back in the White House."
But those families do not have the power to suspend the rules at Arlington, where Section 60 is a fresh and on-going memorial to hundreds of recent war dead that, like the rest of the cemetery, is meant to be above politics.
The family of Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano, a Green Beret who died by suicide after serving multiple combat tours and who is buried in Section 60, said according to their conversations with the cemetery, "the Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit."
"We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that there were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored and respected and treated accordingly," they said in a statement.
Jimmy McCain, a US Marine whose father was the late senator John McCain, also condemned the visit.
Trump has a history of controversial remarks about the military - he insulted Sen. John McCain for being a prisoner of war. He allegedly called dead soldiers "suckers" and "losers," and recently stoked controversy for saying civilian Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients are much better than those who received the Medal of Honor — the highest military award in the country, often given posthumously.
Trump’s conflicting messaging on the campaign trail
The incident at Arlington National Cemetery is the latest example of conflict between the messaging efforts of Trump’s campaign and the candidate himself since President Biden ended his reelection bid and Vice President Harris became the Democratic nominee.
The campaign’s attempts to use the bombing anniversary to attack Harris over the Afghanistan withdrawal, complete with videos from Gold Star family members blaming the administration for the deaths of their loved ones, has been overshadowed by the politicization of Arlington and its hallowed status.
Last week, both Trump and campaign staff sought to clean up his stance on abortion rights and a ballot measure in his home state of Florida. Trump initially seemed to signal support for the proposed amendment that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and posted that his second term would be “great for women and their reproductive rights.”
After backlash from anti-abortion advocates and a statement from the campaign saying that Trump did not say how he would vote on the referendum, Trump eventually told a Fox News reporter he would vote against it.
Trump has also publicly questioned the rules, format and fairness for next week’s debate even as his campaign accepted the conditions and has worked behind the scenes to iron out details.
In a town hall conversation with Fox News host Sean Hannity Wednesday, Trump called debate host ABC News “dishonest” and implied without evidence that Harris would get questions in advance.
The debate will be a pivotal moment for Trump to try and regain momentum against Harris, who has erased Trump’s onetime commanding lead in the polls in the seven key battleground states.
In the six weeks since the switch up on the Democratic side of the race, an NPR review of Trump campaign speeches has found the former president struggling to pivot a campaign tailor-made to beat Biden into focus against his new opponent.
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