Vets split on sincerity of Trump’s rally, candidacy
One day after his rally for veterans in which Donald Trump stole the spotlight from his rivals at the GOP debate, questions surface about whether the money Trump raised will actually go to veterans.
Vets in southern Colorado are split about Trump’s sincerity.
Disabled Iraq veteran Michael Kilburn praises Trump for hosting the rally and will back the GOP frontrunner for president.
“It’s something different, it’s something unconventional,” Kilburn said. “It’s something I haven’t seen done before. Myself and fellow veterans are in the spotlight. We’re being talked about, at least somebody is talking about us.”
Kilburn takes Trump at his word, but a Vietnam vet in the Springs argues the rally was all political theater and a publicity stunt.
“Whoever he says he’s going to help is actually secondary,” Joe Barrera said of the GOP frontrunner.
Trump lost all credibility with Barrera when the businessman said Sen. John McCain, a decorated POW, was no war hero.
“I want to remind all the veterans who may be inclined to vote for Trump that he doesn’t understand veterans,” Barrera said. “If he doesn’t understand what McCain went through, then he doesn’t understand what I went through.”
Friday, the Federalist, a conservative online magazine, says the $6 million Trump claims he raised for wounded vets goes not to veterans’ groups but to the presidential candidate’s foundation.
Trump said he has no regrets about choosing to boycott Thursday’s debate.
As we head into the final weekend of campaigning in Iowa before Monday’s caucus, Trump leads Ted Cruz by 7 points in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
