WINDHAM, N.H.—Saying that America’s military is suffering under the current president’s policies, former President Donald Trump promised to reinstate reforms enacted during his first term in office, proposals that a military-heavy crowd cheered on Aug. 8. Mr. Trump also promised to take new steps to help veterans and to strengthen the military.
“Sadly, Crooked Joe Biden … has been a disaster for American veterans,” Mr. Trump told an appreciative, military-heavy crowd in New Hampshire.
He accused the Democrat president of “a shocking act of betrayal”: reinstating thousands of fired Veterans’ Administration (VA) employees who didn’t do their jobs well or, at worst, abused patients. The Epoch Times has sought comment from The White House.
While union leaders and others argue these employees were wrongfully terminated, Mr. Trump maintains that they were fired for just cause.
Reasons for their dismissals included beating patients and stealing drugs instead of using them to treat veterans’ illnesses, Mr. Trump said.
“It breaks your heart … and now they want to put a lot of these people back,” Mr. Trump said. “Joe Biden puts bureaucrats first. I put veterans first—and I put America first.”
That statement elicited cheers and applause from the audience of about 2,000 people. The crowd included a sizable number of military members, Mr. Trump noted, thanking them for their service.
Coalition of Veterans
His campaign formed a “Veterans for Trump” coalition of “120 distinguished veterans from New Hampshire” who want to see him become the nation’s next commander-in-chief.
An overflow crowd inside Windham High School in Windham, New Hampshire, withstood an hours-long downpour while waiting to go inside and hear the 45th president speak on a Tuesday afternoon.
The former president has visited the Granite State several times since January.
Home to only about 1.4 million people and occupying less than 9,000 square miles of New England, the state comes with four electoral votes. That’s a tiny slice of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
Yet, as the former president pointed out during his speech, New Hampshire is “so important politically.”
The state has held its first-in-nation presidential primary elections since 1920, a status Mr. Trump said he would safeguard.
He and other presidential candidates frequently court voters in New Hampshire because a win there could set the stage for subsequent victories.
If Mr. Trump wins his party’s nomination and then the presidential election next year, he said he would take additional steps “to fulfill our sacred duty to our great American veterans.”
‘You’re Fired!’
The former president says he would restore use of the Veterans Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act.
He signed that bill into law in 2017, “allowing us to quickly terminate VA bureaucrats and bad people who mistreated our vets.”
Previously, those employees were protected under a bureaucratic system that shielded them from being held accountable for wrongdoing and allowed them to keep their jobs under almost any circumstances, Mr. Trump said.
Loudly and dramatically, Mr. Trump exclaimed that he ended that practice: “I said, ‘You’re fired. Get Out! Out! Outta here!'” The crowd cheered, recognizing that the former president was repeating a phrase he made famous when he starred in the reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” which began more than a decade before he ran for president.
Although Mr. Trump is proud of the accountability act, the U.S. Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has ruled against it.
Still, Mr. Trump faults Mr. Biden’s administration for agreeing to return about half of the fired VA workers to their jobs, with full pay, Mr. Trump said, at a cost of some $200 million.
He declared: “I will ask Congress to take every penny of those funds to finally build a brand-new, state-of-the-art VA hospital right here in the great state of New Hampshire … no longer will New Hampshire be the only state in America without a full-service VA facility.”
The crowd cheered that line loudly, followed by another round of applause when Mr. Trump promised, “I will ban the Department of Veterans Affairs from wasting a single cent to fund transgender surgeries or sex-change procedures.” He also said he would reinstate his policy forbidding people from joining the military while identifying as transgender.
Biden Touts ‘Inclusivity’ in Military
In contrast, the Biden administration, in a statement last fall, touted its termination of Mr. Trump’s transgender ban. The White House said it also directed the VA to review “all policies and practices to ensure greater inclusivity of LGTBQ+ veterans.” The VA is committed to providing transgender medical procedures and resources “in an inclusive environment,” the White House said.
The statement points out that Mr. Biden’s administration is trying to address high rates of suicide and homelessness among veterans—problems that Mr. Trump promises to tackle, too.
“I will make it a personal mission to totally eradicate veterans’ homelessness,” the former president said.
Noting that the federal government has spent “nearly $1 billion to house illegal aliens and foreign migrants,” Mr. Trump said he would sign an executive order to stop the flow of those funds. He would “cut off Joe Biden’s massive spigot of funding,” and would redirect that money to care for homeless vets.
Mr. Trump also criticized the way Mr. Biden withdrew U.S. troops from Afghanistan two years ago this month, leaving behind “$85 billion worth of the finest military equipment on the planet.” Mr. Trump said his administration purchased much of that equipment while he rebuilt the military.
The former president said that, while in office, he developed a plan that would have disengaged the U.S. military from Afghanistan with “dignity and strength.” But Mr. Biden exited with “surrender and humiliation,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “I think it was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.”
Mr. Trump said New Hampshire’s leaders have strongly advocated for the military; they probably helped him learn more about military issues than leaders in any other state did.
VA Was Reformed
His campaign says he championed “the most significant VA reforms in a generation.” Three out of four veterans reported that service improved at their local VA hospitals under Mr. Trump’s administration.
While president, Mr. Trump also signed a law that allowed veterans to receive care from “non-VA facilities when they live far away, the wait is too long, or it is not in their best medical interest.”
He signed the Forever G.I. Bill, which allowed veterans “to pursue education at any point in their lives,” and an expansion of job training programs helped 500,000 veterans find jobs, the campaign said.
At Tuesday’s event, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast (R-N.H.), a veteran of the Afghanistan conflict, gave a brief but impassioned introduction of Mr. Trump, calling him “the next president of the United States of America.” Mr. Mast described a request he often receives from fellow military members.
Retirees, who left the military before or after Mr. Trump’s term in office, ask the congressman to see if Mr. Trump will autograph their retirement paperwork. They want him to cross out the name of either Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, Mr. Mast said.
Veterans make such requests “because of the pride that President Trump takes in our service members every single day,” Mr. Mast said.
This is evident, he said, because of the way Mr. Trump comports himself around military members. “His chin is up, his chest is up … he has a reverence and respect” for the military, Mr. Mast said.
The former president knows that “you jump from planes, you rope out of helicopters, you kick in doors, you go across the lines of our enemies, you bring a fight to our enemies day after day,” Mr. Mast said, his voice rising to a crescendo.
“That’s the pride that he takes in you, and that’s the pride he takes in America,” he said. “That’s why we love him.”
Alice Giordano contributed to this story.
