President Trump is being criticized for using a photo showing him saluting a flag-draped coffin at last week’s dignified transfer for the first American soldiers killed in the Iran war. The photo was featured in a fundraising email for the President’s PAC, Never Surrender, a political use which critics characterized as disrespectful to the deceased service members. The email, which solicits donations, promises donors access to Trump’s “private national security briefings.”
[Note: The President was also criticized for wearing a golf hat — from his USA Trump 45-47 merch store — at the solemn event, where everyone else (except military personnel in uniform) did not wear hats.]
Democrats and several former National Security officials are voicing outrage over the president “using” the deaths of the soldiers for fundraising purposes and, of course, for offering access to national security briefings. As Andrew Kaczynski said below on CNN, “it’s not clear” what the offer to such meetings or briefings means but clicking on the “claim your spot” button leads to a donation page.
A fundraising email from Donald Trump for his PAC features a photo of a flag-draped transfer case carrying a soldier’s remains from last Saturday’s dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base, while promising donors access to the president’s “private national security briefings.” pic.twitter.com/ooUay1QP6z
— Andrew Kaczynski (@KFILE) March 14, 2026
Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, a former Naval officer, responded to Trump’s fundraising email: “The president’s political operation was raising money off images at a dignified transfer. Any politician who does that has no business leading American troops into war. If the president is willing to raise campaign funds over the bodies of America’s war dead, he is unfit to be the commander in chief.”
Buttigieg: “The president’s political operation was raising money off images at a dignified transfer. Any politician who does that has no business leading American troops into war. If the president is willing to raise campaign funds over the bodies of America’s war dead, he is… pic.twitter.com/OXmLsBYLFe
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 15, 2026
Tommy Vietor, former National Security Spokesman during the Obama administration, replied: “Trump sent a fundraising email featuring a dead soldier’s casket…who was killed in a reckless war that Trump himself started. This is the most disgraceful thing I have ever seen.”