Fourth Joint Status Report: Fill & Download for Free

About 60 under construction.Nuclear plant constructionMost reactors currently planned are in the Asian region, with fast-growing economies and rapidly-rising electricity demand.Many countries with existing nuclear power programs (Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Czech Rep., India, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Korea, South Africa, UAE, Ukraine, UK, USA) have plans to build new power reactors (beyond those now under construction).In all, over 160 power reactors with a total net capacity of some 182,000 MWe are planned and over 300 more are proposed. Energy security concerns and greenhouse constraints on coal burning have combined with basic economics to put nuclear power back on the agenda for projected new capacity in many countries.In the USA there are plans for five new reactors, beyond the five under construction now. It is expected that some of the new reactors will be on line by 2020.In Finland, construction is now under way on a fifth, very large reactor which is expected to come on line in 2018, and plans are progressing for another large one to follow it.France is building a similar 1600 MWe unit at Flamanville, for operation from 2018.In the UK, four similar 1600 MWe units are planned, and a further 6000 MWe is proposed.Romania's second power reactor istarted up in 2007, and plans are being implemented for two further Canadian units to be built there.Slovakia is completing two 470 MWe units at Mochovce, to operate from 2017.Bulgaria is planning to build a large new reactor at Kozloduy.Belarus is building two large new Russian reactors at Ostrovets.In Russia, several reactors and two small ones are under active construction, and one recently put into operation is a large fast neutron reactor. About 25 further reactors are then planned, some to replace existing plants. This will increase the country's present nuclear power capacity significantly by 2030. In addition about 5 GW of nuclear thermal capacity is planned. A small floating power plant is expected to be commissioned by 2018 and others are planned to follow.Poland is planning two 3000 MWe nuclear power plants.South Korea plans to bring a further further four reactors into operation by 2018, and another eight by about 2030, giving total new capacity of 17,200 MWe. All of these are the Advanced PWRs of 1400 MWe. These APR-1400 designs have evolved from a US design which has US NRC design certification, and four been sold to the UAE (see below).Japan has two reactors under construction but another three which were likely to start building by mid-2011 have been deferred.In China, now with 32 operating reactors on the mainland, the country is well into the growth phase of its nuclear power programme. There were eight new grid connections in 2015. Over 20 more reactors are under construction, including the world's first Westinghouse AP1000 units, and a demonstration high-temperature gas-cooled reactor plant. Many more units are planned, including two largely indigenous designs – the Hualong One and CAP1400. China aims to more than double its nuclear capacity by 2020.India has 21 reactors in operation, and six under construction. This includes two large Russian reactors and a large prototype fast breeder reactor as part of its strategy to develop a fuel cycle which can utilise thorium. Over 20 further units are planned. 18 further units are planned, and proposals for more - including western and Russian designs - are taking shape following the lifting of trade restrictions.Pakistan has third and fourth 300 MWe reactors under construction at Chashma, financed by China. Two larger Chinese power reactors are planned.In Kazakhstan, a joint venture with Russia's Atomstroyexport envisages development and marketing of innovative small and medium-sized reactors, starting with a 300 MWe Russian design as baseline for Kazakh units.In Iran a 1000 MWe PWR at Bushehr came on line in 2011, and further units are planned.The United Arab Emirates awarded a $20.4 billion contract to a South Korean consortium to build four 1400 MWe reactors by 2020. They are under construction, on schedule.Jordan has committed plans for its first reactor, and is developing its legal and regulatory infrastructure.Turkey has contracts signed for four 1200 MWe Russian nuclear reactors at one site and four European ones at another. Its legal and regulatory infrastructure is well-developed.Vietnam has committed plans for its first reactors at two sites (2x2000 MWe), and is developing its legal and regulatory infrastructure. The first plant will be a turnkey project built by Atomstroyexport. The second will be Japanese.http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/plans-for-new-reactors-worldwide.aspxPRIS - Reactor status reports - Under Construction - By Country

On Wednesday, the crown prince will receive a ceremonial welcome at the presidential palace and meet the Indian foreign minister, before sitting down with Modi for talks that are expected to be wide-ranging. The prime minister will also host a lunch for the visiting dignitaries, while in the evening President Ram Nath Kovind will host a banquet in honor of the Saudi crown prince, who is accompanied by a high-level delegation that includes ministers, senior officials and leading Saudi businessmen.The royal visit follows the Indian PM’s trip to Saudi Arabia in April 2016, during which the countries elevated the status of their relationship to a strategic partnership. Some reports have suggested that they might now be planning to set up a “Strategic Partnership Council” at a ministerial level, in addition to holding joint naval exercises and upgrading defense cooperation.Narendra Modi on TwitterIndia is delighted to welcome HRH Mohammed Bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.As well as the political engagement during the crown prince’s visit, 400 Indian and Saudi business leaders will meet in New Delhi, at the invitation of Saudi General Investment Authority, to explore business opportunities and cooperation.BREAKING: @narendramodi says India is delighted to welcome Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman from Saudi Arabia. #CrownPrinceInIndiaIndia is the fourth-largest trading partner of Saudi Arabia, with bilateral trade worth $27.5 billion last year, and Riyadh supplies 20 percent of India’s crude-oil requirement. Last year, Saudi Aramco, in partnership with UAE company ADNOC, entered into a $44 billion joint venture for a stake in the Ratnagiri Refinery and Petro-Chemical project in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.India considers Saudi Arabia a friend and part of its “extended neighborhood,” said Ahmad Javed, India’s ambassador in Riyadh.The people of the #India extend their warm welcomes to #SaudiArabia's Mohammed bin Salman for his first state visit to the country #CrownPrinceInIndiahttps://t.co/OWQEcY0Esn pic.twitter.com/suoBmn8Gtz— Arab News (@arabnews) February 19, 2019“More than 7 million Indians work in the Gulf region,” he added. “Saudi Arabia and the other GCC states have been the time-tested, reliable source of our energy security. The security, stability and prosperity of the region are of great importance to us.“We attach great priority to our friendly relations with Saudi Arabia. Our traditionally close ties are anchored in shared interests based on centuries-old economic and sociocultural ties, as well as vibrant people-to-people contacts.”

It was interesting to see Jennifer Griffin of Fox News confirm that Trump has repeatedly insulted American servicemen and women by calling them “losers” and “suckers.” On the record, Trump has called America’s top generals “pussies,” “dopes” and “morons.” Let’s think about that for a second. If Trump thinks and speaks that way about America’s highest-ranking generals, what can we expect him to think about the lower ranks? This is why the reports that Trump called American soldiers “losers” and “suckers” rings true for me …These and similar statements have been confirmed by Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin, the Associated Press, Department of Homeland Security former chief of staff Miles Taylor, senior Newsweek and AP News military and national security correspondent James LaPorta, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others. LaPorta, a former Marine, said he doubted the initial report, found it shocking, and thus launched his own investigation, only to be told by his sources that it was correct. And while Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton said he was not in the room to confirm these particular comments, he pointed out that no one who knows Trump would find them out of character: “I haven’t heard anybody yet react to say, ‘That’s not the Donald Trump I know’.” (I have provided exact quotes, confirmations and links below.)We know from things Trump has said in the past, on the public record, that he detests many people and is not shy about insulting and berating them, so as shocking as these new revelations are, they are not surprising. Rather, they are part of a longstanding pattern for Trump (see “THE PATTERN” below.)Trump "has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades," multiple sources told The Atlantic. According to The Atlantic, Trump also described Americans who lost their lives fighting for their country in France during WWII as "losers" and "suckers." I will provide the full quotes below, but will first establish a rather obvious pattern, then consider WHY the draft-dodging Trump would say such detestable things. Is Trump such a narcissist that he only admires people he finds physically attractive? Do vets' missing limbs offend Trump so much that he wants them kept out of parades?THE PATTERNTrump has made it very clear that in his eyes the only "good" women are young "beautiful pieces of ass" with large breasts, like his daughter Ivanka. Trump has also made it very clear that he has no respect for women he considers unattractive, even disparaging the looks of Angelina Jolie and Heidi Klum. (The Donald has YUGELY & BIGLY high standards!) Trump has also made it very clear that he has no respect for the handicapped, by mocking a disabled reporter before the eyes of an astonished world. And this perverse disregard for people who don't meet Trump's superficial standards for perfection extends to veterans, from grunts to generals:Trump has even called our highest-ranking generals losers! As Bob Woodward just revealed in tapes made on the record, Trump called our top generals “pussies.” During his first presidential campaign, Trump publicly insulted them as a group, saying, “I know more about ISIS than the generals do.” During a meeting at the Pentagon in 2017, Trump berated our top generals: “I wouldn’t go to war with you people, you’re a bunch of dopes and babies.” Trump called Afghanistan a “loser war” and told the assembled generals “you don’t know how to win anymore.” In other words, Trump called our highest-ranking generals “losers.” Trump called Jim Mattis “the world’s most overrated general.” Trump also blasted Mattis as “not tough enough” then in his incredible egotism said “I captured ISIS!” as if he had done it personally. (Of course much of ISIS remains at large, and uncaptured.) Senator Tim Kaine called Trump’s attack on Mattis “delusional” and praised the former U.S. Central Command leader as “one of the finest public servants I have ever worked with in 25 years of public life.” A Military Times poll found that nearly 84 percent of troops had a favorable view of Mattis and among officers the figure was almost 90 percent. In any case, if Trump thinks and talks like that about generals, what should we expect him to think and say about ordinary soldiers? But these horrendous insults are just the tip of an enormous iceberg (more follow). Thus these new quotes ring true for me.Future US president George H. W. Bush was the Navy’s youngest pilot when he earned his wings a few days before turning 19, but he was a “loser” to the draft-dodging Donald Trump because his plane was shot down.Pilots who get shot down, like John McCain and George H. W. Bush, are "losers" to Trump. Three sources told The Atlantic that Trump had described Bush as a "loser" because his plane was shot down during World War II. Bush was the youngest Navy pilot when he earned his wings a few days before turning 19. Flying a Grumman Avenger TBM torpedo bomber into the teeth of the Japanese fleet at age 19 sounds pretty damn heroic to me. How about you? And the US Navy agreed. For his 58 combat missions, Lieutenant Bush was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery and three Air Medals. And Bush was hardly a “loser.” In the mission where his plane went down, Bush and his crew encountered intense antiaircraft fire. While starting the attack, Bush's plane was hit and his engine caught on fire. Bush still completed his attack, released his bombs and scoring several damaging hits. Bush and his crew then bailed out. Unfortunately, only Bush survived. He was rescued by the submarine USS Finback. During the month he remained on the Finback, Bush participated in the rescue of other pilots. Yeah, pretty effin’ heroic, pardon my French. What was Trump doing at age 19? Playing it safe, ducking the draft, working on his tan, fighting his “personal Vietnam” against venereal diseases?BTW, such statements by Trump go WAY back in time. When Mark Bowden was writing his article about Trump for Playboy magazine in November 1996, he traveled with Trump on his private jet to Mar-a-Lago. This is what he observed:“What was clear was how fast and far one could fall from favor. The trip from “genius” to “idiot” was a flash. The former [military] pilots who flew his plane were geniuses, until they made one too many bumpy landings and became “fucking idiots.” [This sounds like a personality disorder called “splitting” in which, like a baby, the person with the disorder judges everyone else by how they make him feel at the moment. Feel-good things are “perfect” while feel-bad things are “evil.” Thus a baby can see his mother as an angel one minute, and as a witch the next, if she withholds something he wants. People with this disorder don’t see shades of grey: everything is black or white, perfect or evil. Trump has called himself a “perfect person” more than once and claims to have “no faults” and to never bear any responsibility for anything he does that goes wrong. If he is perfect, anyone who contradicts or otherwise displeases Trump is the opposite of perfect, and that can explain why he reacts so badly to criticism, even when the criticism is warranted. It also explains why Trump calls people who displease him “losers” even when they are not at fault. McCain and Bush were not responsible for getting shot down. McCain was not responsible for getting captured. But these things make Trump unhappy and he lashes out at the source of his unhappiness. Ditto for soldiers with missing limbs that he doesn’t want in his parades. Ditto for war dead whose graves he would rather not visit, especially when his hair might get wet.]Continuing Mark Bowden’s account:The gold carpeting selected in his absence for the locker rooms in the spa at Mar-a-Lago? “What kind of fucking idiot . . . ?” I watched as Trump strutted around the beautifully groomed clay tennis courts on his estate, managed by noted tennis pro Anthony Boulle. The courts had been prepped meticulously for a full day of scheduled matches. Trump took exception to the design of the spaces between courts. In particular, he didn’t like a small metal box—a pump and cooler for the water fountain alongside—which he thought looked ugly. He first questioned its placement, then crudely disparaged it, then kicked the box, which didn’t budge, and then stooped—red-faced and fuming—to tear it loose from its moorings, rupturing a water line and sending a geyser to soak the courts. Boulle looked horrified, a weekend of tennis abruptly drowned. Catching a glimpse of me watching, Trump grimaced. [Bowden went on to explain that Trump became the only person he interviewed who tried to bribe him not to mention what he had seen with his own eyes.]POWs like John McCain are not heroes because Trump only likes uncaptured soldiers. Captured soldiers are "losers" to Trump. While Trump has claimed that he never called John McCain a “loser,” he most certainly did, in a 2015 videotaped interview with Frank Luntz — the same interview where Trump insisted that McCain was not a war hero. (I have provided a link to the interview at the bottom of this page.) Trump had also made negative remarks about McCain being captured in a 1999 interview with Dan Rather, questioning why he had been called a hero, so this was obviously not some sort of fluke. Trump continued to disparage McCain after his death, saying, "We sent him on the way, but I wasn't a fan of John McCain.” Trump even insinuated that McCain was in hell and seemed to be happy with that prospect: "And sometimes, you know, we had a little hard time with a couple of them, right? Fortunately, they're gone now. They've gone on to greener pastures — or perhaps far less green pastures. But they're gone. I'm very happy they're gone." [In other words, Trump is very happy that McCain went to his grave and, hopefully, to hell.]According to the Washington Post, Trump told senior advisers that he didn’t understand why the U.S. government placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action because they had performed poorly and gotten caught and deserved what they got, according to a person familiar with the discussion.Being mutilated and/or losing limbs is worse than being captured, so wounded warriors are even bigger "losers" to Trump.Trump finds mutilated soldiers embarrassing and wanted to keep them out of the 2017 Fourth of July parade, saying the inclusion of "wounded guys" is "not a good look" and that "Americans don't like that." As Marc Clamage pointed out: “Donald Trump, in case you hadn’t noticed, is a quivering bundle of neuroses. One of them is mysophobia, the pathological fear of contamination and germs. [Remember how Trump freaked out when Hillary Clinton took a potty break during a debate?] … The dead, the injured, the deformed, the disfigured—Donald Trump is repulsed by them. He keeps his interaction with injured or disfigured veterans to a minimum and, being incapable of empathy, he is angered by the response they elicit in him. Since he is also not too bright, he assumes others share his visceral response. [This is why he said wounder warriors a “not a good luck” and “Americans don’t like that.] When he calls American soldiers losers and suckers, he expects you to agree with him. Donald Trump is severely impaired—mentally, morally, and emotionally.”Getting killed is even worse than being captured or mutilated, so what Trump said about the American war dead in France actually fits this grotesque pattern.Trump's aversion to wounded veterans is nothing new. During the first Republican presidential debate, Megyn Kelly quoted what Trump had said about other women, calling them "pigs," "dogs" and "disgusting animals." Trump earned a well-deserved public spanking for attacking Kelly, when all she had done was QUOTE him, and the endlessly petulant Trump decided to skip the next debate. Trump’s excuse? He claimed to "love" our vets so much that he preferred to do a benefit for them. This "Trump love" sounded very dubious to me, so I decided to do some independent research. What I discovered was that Trump had repeatedly tried to get New York City mayors to keep vets from selling patriotic wares on ritzy Fifth Avenue, even though this was their right by New York law. The Donald didn't "love" vets; in reality he didn't want to see them, or smell them. When New York mayors refused to deny vets their legal rights, the huffy Donald built giant concrete columns outside Trump Tower to keep wounded warriors from standing anywhere close to his expensive baubles.Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran and two-term Republican senator, told ABC News "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz that if Trump's reported comments are "real, it's beneath the dignity of any commander in chief. Truly they're despicable." Hagel said that while the report was based on anonymous sources, the remarks fit with a pattern of previous statements and actions. He cited Trump's past comments about the late Sen. John McCain as well as three former military general who served in his own Cabinet: former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, former national security adviser William McMaster and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. He also accused the president of using veteran and active-duty troops as political "props." "Let's go back and look at Mr. Trump's words himself coming out of his own mouth starting in 2016 with what he said about John McCain and what he continued to say about McCain," Hagel said. "How he degraded the service of Gens. Mattis and McMaster and just recently Gen. Kelly. The history of this president over the last three and four years is pretty clear." Hagel also pointed to Trump's decision not to go to a 2018 ceremony at a military cemetery in France to honor America's war dead. Trump claimed he was unable to attend because of weather. "Every other leader went. Every other leader drove. The leaders of France, Germany, Canada," Hagel said. "And you can go through a litany of past things that he said from his mouth, actions that he's taken and it corroborates really the Goldberg article in The Atlantic.'"The weather and traffic did not keep Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel or French President Emmanuel Macron from attending gravesite ceremonies that day. Only Trump failed to honor America’s war dead. Why? Apparently because he was worried about his hair and didn’t see any need to honor “losers” and “suckers.”THE WHYSo what does Trump really mean? In my opinion, what Trump really means is this: "I was smart to dodge the draft and send other men to fight and die in my place in Vietnam. Anyone who fights and dies for his country, or gets wounded, is a moron, a fool, a loser, a sucker."WHAT DO VETERANS THINK ABOUT TRUMP’S INSULTS?Jeff McCausland, a retired U.S. Army colonel and former member of the National Security Council, wrote: “We want to believe our commander in chief wouldn’t say such incredibly offensive things. But we also know, deep down, that it’s likely he did. Because he has before.” Upon reading the Atlantic article, I was angry. Sadly, I was not surprised. These allegations are consistent with numerous other comments and actions made by Trump over the past three years that, taken together, demonstrate a clear pattern of disrespect toward the military. Even before he was elected in 2016, Trump argued that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. was “not a war hero.” He later described McCain, as well as President George H.W. Bush, as “losers” for being shot down in combat. Trump even resisted lowering the flag over the White House when McCain died. In a Pentagon meeting in the summer of 2017, Trump blasted senior military leadership in front of junior officers and civilians as “losers” and a “bunch of dopes and babies.” In the aftermath of this meeting, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly referred to the president as a "moron." The list goes on. Former Defense Secretary and retired Marine Gen. James Mattis observed that Trump used troops as political props for a photo op in Lafayette Park. Trump criticized Gold Star families and reportedly told the grieving wife of a soldier killed in combat that he “knew what he signed up for.” The president has also denigrated and directly interfered in court-martial actions against soldiers accused of war crimes. These are not gaffes, nor are they the blunders of a man who simply lacks empathy. Rather, they reveal the president’s basic lack of understanding of the military — and even bigger than that, his lack of understanding of the concept of “service.” This is a man who, in a 1997 interview with Howard Stern, bragged about how avoiding sexually transmitted diseases in the 1960s and '70s was his own “personal Vietnam.” Trump is, at his core, a figure born of privilege who views people not as individuals, but as pawns. This transactional worldview explains the fact that he simply cannot fathom why anyone would volunteer to serve. It is incomprehensible to him. In Trump’s mind, nothing is worth doing without the possibility of a significant monetary reward or boost in status. As Goldberg noted, after then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford had delivered a White House briefing, Trump asked aides: “That guy is smart. Why did he join the military?”One of Trump's "losers" and "suckers" is 95-year-old WWII veteran Harvey Hafter, who spoke with evident pride of serving his country on a PT Boat, then let the Demander-in-Chief have it with both barrels: "Boy is he a loser! What has he done? Other than screw up, and that's exactly what we called them in the Navy: a Foul-Up, Top to Bottom. He can't insult us and get away with that kind of nonsense! Who does he think he is, that Draft Dodger? He's a coward! And I'd call him so to his face! I wish he were here right now! I'm five-foot-six. I weigh 135 pounds soaking wet. And I challenge him. Any way he wants: pistols, swords, fists. Any way he wants, 'cause that kind of an insult, I won't stand for it! And neither will any other service person. Who does he think he is? Whatever chance he had of getting a vote from me is gone. I want someone who's calm, quiet and not a Loud-Mouth, an Empty Barrel. I want Joe Biden. That's it."Listen to this pistol of a 95-year-old veteran call Trump the coward he is and ask “Who does Trump think he is?” https://t.co/Z5gJEkSBtc— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) September 6, 2020THE ORIGINAL QUOTESHere is what Trump said and did, as reported by The Atlantic in an article by editor-in-chief and award-winning journalist Jeffrey Goldberg:When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.THE CONFIRMATIONSJennifer Griffin of Fox News has confirmed that Trump called veterans LOSERS and SUCKERS:Jennifer Griffin tweeted:Two former senior Trump admin officials confirm .Jeffrey Goldberg reporting that President Trump disparaged veterans and did not want to drive to honor American war dead at Aisne-Marne Cemetery outside Paris.President Trump's staff explained he could cancel (his visit to the cemetery), but he was warned, 'They (the press) are going to kill you for this'." The President was mad as a hornet when they did.When asked IF the President could have driven to the Aisne-Marne Cemetery, this former official said confidently: "The President drives a lot. The other world leaders drove to the cemeteries. He just didn't want to go."Regarding Trump's July 4th military parade, during a planning session at the White House after seeing the Bastille Day parade in 2017, the President said regarding the inclusion of "wounded guys" "that's not a good look" "Americans don't like that," source confirms.The main gist of the report has also been confirmed by the Associated Press:The allegations were first reported in The Atlantic. A senior Defense Department official with firsthand knowledge of events confirmed some of the remarks to The Associated Press, including the 2018 cemetery comments.The defense official said Trump made the comments as he begged off visiting the cemetery outside Paris during a meeting following his presidential daily briefing on the morning of Nov. 10, 2018.Staffers from the National Security Council and the Secret Service told Trump that rainy weather made helicopter travel to the cemetery risky, but they could drive there. Trump responded by saying he didn't want to visit the cemetery because it was “filled with losers,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss it publicly.According to The New York Times, the Defense official who confirmed the report in The Atlantic also said that on Memorial Day 2017, Trump had gone with his chief of staff, John Kelly, to visit the Arlington Cemetery gravesite of Kelly's son, Robert, who was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan, and said to Kelly: “I don't get it. What was in it for them?"The Atlantic, citing sources with firsthand knowledge, also reported that Trump declined to support the August 2018 funeral of John McCain, a decorated Navy veteran and POW, because he was a “loser.” Trump reportedly told his senior staff that “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral.” Trump was also upset that flags were flown at half-staff for McCain, saying: “What the f—k are we doing that for? Guy was a f—king loser.” In 2015, early in his presidential candidacy, Trump had publicly blasted McCain, saying “He’s not a war hero.” Trump added, “I like people who weren’t captured.” Even after McCain’s death, Trump continued to attack him posthumously. The New York Times verified that Trump resisted supporting an official funeral and lowering flags after John McCain’s death, citing McCain as “a Vietnam War hero whose military service he [Trump] had disparaged.”The Atlantic said Trump also referred to former President George H. W. Bush as a “loser” because he was shot down by the Japanese as a Navy pilot in World War II.The New York Times also said:“Moreover, people familiar with Mr. Trump’s private conversations say he has long scorned those who served in Vietnam as being too dumb to have gotten out of it, as he did through a medical diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels. At other times, according to those familiar with the remarks, Mr. Trump has expressed bewilderment that people choose military service over making money. Some also recalled him asking why the United States should be so interested in finding captured soldiers, a comment made in the context of Mr. McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Another former official said Mr. Trump often expressed discomfort around people who had been injured, although he has held events with wounded veterans.”The New York Times also said:“While Mr. Trump demanded that allies knock down the article, aides recognized that few senior military officers were willing to openly defend the president.”According to The New York Times, while John Bolton could not confirm the quotes in question because if they had been made he was not present at the time, “Mr. Bolton added that the reported comments were not out of character for the president. ‘I haven’t heard anybody yet react to say, That’s not the Donald Trump I know.’”Personally, I believe John Bolton is telling us that these are indeed the kinds of disparaging remarks Trump makes about our servicemen and servicewomen.James LaPorta, a senior correspondent for Newsweek covering national security and military affairs, tweeted that he had confirmed the Atlantic reporting: “A senior Defense Department official I just spoke with confirmed this story by @JeffreyGoldberg (Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) | Twitter) in its entirety. Especially the grafs about the late Sen. John McCain and former Marine Gen. John Kelly …”Sarah Blake Morgan tweeted: “My colleague, ⁦@JimLaPorta⁩, confirming ⁦@TheAtlantic⁩’s reporting - including Trump’s cemetery comments in both France and Arlington’s Section 60.”Miles Taylor, who was chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, has disputed Trump’s assertion that he lowered the flags for Mr. McCain without complaint. Taylor said that he received calls from the White House complaining that the department had ordered flags lowered. “The president is upset, this has gone out too soon and he doesn’t want it to happen,” he quoted a White House aide telling him. “I was then asked, ‘Would you guys be able to rescind the directive?’” Mr. Taylor said in an interview. He said he resisted, and ultimately White House aides pushed Mr. Trump to keep the flags lowered. But it was made clear that the president “won’t want them down, and he’s angry.” Taylor said that he found the episode “astounding and disgusting.”According to the Washington Post:Trump also couldn’t comprehend why some of the high-ranking military men serving in his administration such as [John] Kelly and former defense secretary Jim Mattis would choose that path. He regarded their rank as a sign of accomplishment, but also of squandered earning potential. “You seem like fairly talented guys — why would you do that? You don’t make any money,” Trump said, according to the former official, who added of Trump: “Everything is transactional to him.”According to Political Wire:Fox News Confirms Trump Disparaged VeteransSeptember 4, 2020 at 4:32 pm EDT By Taegan GoddardTwo former senior Trump administration officials confirmed to Fox News that President Trump regularly disparaged veterans.According to one former senior Trump administration official: “When the President spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, ‘It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker’.”He added: “What’s in it for them? They don’t make any money.” [This sounds very much like what Trump reportedly said to John Kelly when they visited his son’s grave.]Explained the source: “It was a character flaw of the President. He could not understand why someone would die for their country, not worth it.”THE REBUTTALSThis from Politico:Senator Tammy Duckworth homed in on a different detail from The Atlantic’s report: the president’s request during a 2018 White House planning meeting for a military parade that the celebratory event not include wounded veterans such as amputees. “Nobody wants to see that,” Trump allegedly said.Duckworth insisted that Trump’s remarks do not “diminish the sacrifices of wounded soldiers who gave up their limbs, like I did, for all Americans — including him.”“I’d take my wheelchair and my titanium legs over Donald Trump’s supposed bone spurs any day,” she said, referring to the medical exemption that granted Trump a deferment from being drafted into military service during the Vietnam War.Also featured on the Biden campaign call was Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004 and who has feuded with Trump since addressing the Democratic National Convention in 2016. On Friday, however, he leveled what appeared to be his most forceful and personal condemnation of the president yet.“Words matter. The words we say are a window into our souls — of how we see the world and our place in it,” Khan said. “When Donald Trump calls anyone who places their life in service of others a ‘loser,’ we understand Trump’s soul.”Khan went on to describe Trump’s life as a “testament to selfishness,” contending that the president is “incapable of understanding service, valor and courage. His soul cannot conceive of integrity and honor. And let me say very loudly and clearly so America can listen: His soul is that of a coward.”Pennsylvania Rep. Conor Lamb, a Marine veteran and the final Biden surrogate to participate in Friday’s press call, was more reluctant to discuss Trump’s reported remarks, instead explaining the historical and symbolic significance of the Battle of Belleau Wood to the U.S. Marine Corps.Many of the Marines killed in that battle are buried at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, which Trump declined to visit, and the three-week World War I conflict is widely regarded as “if not the most, certainly one of the most important battles in Marine Corps history,” according to Lamb.“That battle and that burial ground deserve the utmost respect and veneration to any American,” Lamb said, but “for a president to pass up the opportunity to pay his respect at that site, it’s just a tragedy regardless of what was said or wasn’t said.”Several of Lamb’s fellow House Democrats who also served in the military similarly criticized Trump in a conference call with reporters on Friday. The group of lawmakers included Reps. Gil Cisneros and Ted Lieu of California, Jason Crow of Colorado, Elaine Luria of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey.“I was incredibly proud to serve our country. I didn’t do it because I was stupid or a sucker. I did it because I love this country,” Sherrill said, adding: “I don’t think he’s fit to be the president of the United States.”THE AFTERMATH … SO FARTrump is trying to get Jennifer Griffin fired ... This per Rolling Stone:On Saturday morning, following a late Friday night tweet from the president calling on Fox News to fire her, the network’s national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin told host Neil Cavuto that Trump did indeed use the sort of language The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg said the president had.After being asked about The Atlantic’s framing of Trump’s comments, Griffin told Cavuto that she double-checked with her sources this morning and they reconfirmed both Goldberg’s reporting and her own.“Well, I circled back with my source this morning and he firmly said this was not a one-off,” Griffin said, adding that Trump “used, according to my source, he used ‘suckers’ and that term repeatedly to describe McCain and anyone who went to Vietnam.”Griffin continued, “He always described — according to the source — Vietnam vets as those who couldn’t get out of it. And he would often say to his advisers when they suggested that he would go to visit the war dead, ‘What is it about you guys and guys who get killed?’ So, he used ‘losers.’ That’s a big part of the president’s vernacular. I think anyone who’s been around him knows that.”A recent poll by the The Military Times shows Joe Biden leading Trump with 41 percent to 37 percent among active-duty troops, a “stark departure from the military’s longstanding support for Republicans and a danger sign for the president.”Barely 15 hours after the original Atlantic article was published, VoteVets, a veterans organization that has long been critical of Trump, released an online ad featuring the parents of troops slain in Iraq and Afghanistan, each one declaring that their son or stepson was not a “loser” or “sucker.”Trump is now trying to claim that he really wanted to attend the graveside ceremony, after all. But he has been caught in an obvious lie. Trump said he "called home, I spoke to my wife and I said, 'I hate this. I came here to go to that ceremony.'" But Melania Trump was in France with him, so he obviously didn’t “call home.”THE ARTICLE AND RELATED LINKSHere are links to the Atlantic article and associated links:Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’Fox News confirms the Atlantic account:Trump calls John McCain a “loser” and says American POWs are not heroes because he only likes soldiers who don’t get captured:THE END