Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump used a Memorial Day weekend speech to press his message on veterans, saying that his administration would take care of them and correct a situation in which "illegal immigrants are taken care of by this country better than our veterans."
Speaking at the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally in Washington DC that raises awareness of veterans issues, Trump also vowed to rebuild the military and use it to "beat the hell" out of the Islamic State, saying that "our generals are spinning in their graves" with this defeatist mentality of "we can't beat" them.
The real estate mogul touched on many of the other themes he has hammered home during his campaign to capture the Republican nomination, such as making others countries pay more of a share of the cost of their defense, healthcare, building a wall on the Mexican border, protecting the Second Amendment and loss of jobs to foreign countries due to poor trade deals.
Trump emphasized that the relocation of so many vibrant factories that used to be in the U.S. to foreign countries would stop under his administration, because he would make it not economically worthwhile for them to move abroad.
After criticizing many countries who have large trade surpluses with the U.S., Trump said he was not angry at China or Mexico or Japan, "but at our president for being a grossly incompetent president of the United States to allow this to happen."
One biker explained to
Bloomberg News Trump's appeal.
"He speaks his mind," Jeff Memges said. "We bikers are about freedom … and there’s no support among us for the Washington establishment."
Trump angered many veterans last July when he attacked Sen. John McCain, who was a prisoner of war for more than five years in North Vietnam after his plane was shot down, saying “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK?”
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