Trump’s deputy campaign manager identified in Arlington National Cemetery clash

One of the two staffers involved in the altercation at Arlington National Cemetery is a deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, NPR has learned. The former president insisted this week that the incident did not happen, highlighting a growing disconnect between the candidate’s message and that of his campaign. NPR is identifying the two staffers after the campaign’s conflicting responses to the incident last week outside Section 60 of the cemetery, where many victims of Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.

According to a source familiar with the incident, the two staffers are deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Trump’s prep team.

Caporale is a former aide to former first lady Melania Trump who left the White House to work for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis before returning to the Trump campaign. He was also listed as an on-site contact and project manager for the Women for America First rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, where Trump urged the crowd to “stop the steal” before some of them stormed the U.S. Capitol.

After participating in a wreath-laying ceremony marking the third anniversary of the deadly Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan that killed 13 U.S. service members, Trump toured Section 60 at the invitation of some of the family members and friends of the fallen soldiers.

ANC rules, which had been clearly communicated to the Trump campaign in advance, state that only an official Arlington photographer can take pictures or film in Section 60. When an ANC staffer tried to enforce those rules, she was verbally assaulted by the two Trump campaign staffers, according to a source familiar with the incident. Picard then pushed her out of the way, according to two Pentagon officials.

The campaign’s mixed messages about the incident

After NPR first reported the altercation last week, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said they were “prepared to release footage” of the incident and accused the Arlington employee of being someone “clearly suffering from a mental health issue.” Cheung also said they were allowed to have a photographer present and pointed to a statement from members of the Gold Star family inviting Trump to attend the ceremony.

The campaign also released a TikTok video that included video footage of Section 60, including a smiling Trump giving a thumbs-up sign with family members at the graves. But other headstones are visible in the photo, and at least A family of fallen green berets confirmed that they had not given permission for his grave to be filmed or used in campaign advertising.

The Army released a statement Thursday acknowledging that a cemetery worker “was abruptly removed” and that the campaign had been notified in advance that photography and political activities at Arlington would be banned. The Army said the cemetery worker tried to defuse the situation after being jostled, hoping not to upset the Gold Star families present.

The military said a police report on the incident had been filed but the employee had declined to press charges and the military considered the matter closed, but added that “the ANC employee and her professionalism have been unfairly attacked.”

When NPR emailed Caporale and Picard, Cheung responded: “I see you emailed some of our team members… As the Army has said, they consider this matter closed. President Trump was there to support the Gold Star families and honor the sacrifices their loved ones made.”

Cheung also included a social media post that shows a 2020 Biden campaign ad that used images of the then-vice president in the cemetery in 2010.

Neither Cheung, Picard nor Caporale responded to emailed requests for comment at the time of publication. Reached by phone, Caporale referred questions to Cheung. The Trump campaign has yet to follow through on its promise to release video of the incident, despite repeated requests from NPR.

This week, Trump contradicted his own campaign with a post on Truth Social falsely calling the confrontation “a story made up by Comrade Kamala and her disinformation team” who attacked Harris and Biden for not attending the private ceremony.

In an interview Tuesday on Sean Hannity’s radio show, Trump repeated the false claim that nothing happened at the cemetery, questioning the unnamed employee’s motives and downplaying the accusations as attacks on “publicity.”

“Have you noticed that the person portrayed today doesn’t want to talk, she doesn’t want to talk or talk?” Trump asked, incorrectly referring to the employee as a man. “What’s good, what’s beautiful, is that all the parents and relatives got together and they said, ‘This is a fake story, this was totally false.’”

Former President Trump Polls are positive among veteransand has many active supporters with ties to the military. Some of the family members who invited him to Arlington also spoke at the Republican National Convention, criticizing Biden and openly supporting Trump.

“Joe Biden may have forgotten that our children died, but we haven’t forgotten — Donald Trump hasn’t forgotten,” Cheryl Juels said in Milwaukee at the RNC in July. Juels is the aunt of Staff Sgt. Nicole Gee, one of the service members killed at Abbey Gate in 2021 during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.

“Joe Biden owes the men and women who served in Afghanistan a great deal of gratitude and an apology. Donald Trump loves this country and will never forget the sacrifice and courage of our service members,” she added. “Join us in putting him back in the White House.”

But those families have no power to suspend the rules at Arlington, where Section 60 is a recent and permanent memorial to hundreds of recent war dead that, like the rest of the cemetery, is supposed to be above politics.

The family of Staff Sgt. Andrew Marckesano, a Green Beret who committed suicide after serving multiple combat tours and is buried in Section 60, said that based on their conversations with the cemetery, “members of the Trump campaign did not follow the rules that were in place for this visit.”

“We hope that those who visit this sacred site understand that there are real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored, respected and treated accordingly,” they said in a statement.

Jimmy McCain, a U.S. Marine whose father was the late Senator John McCain, condemned the visit.

Trump has a history of making controversial remarks about the military: He has insulted Sen. John McCain for being a prisoner of war, has reportedly called dead soldiers “suckers” and “losers,” and recently sparked controversy by saying that civilian recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom were far better than those who received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, which is often awarded posthumously.

Trump’s Mixed Messages During the Election Campaign

The incident at Arlington National Cemetery is the latest example of conflict between the Trump campaign’s communications efforts and the candidate himself since President Biden ended his re-election campaign and Vice President Harris became the Democratic nominee.

The campaign’s attempts to use the bombing anniversary to attack Harris over the Afghanistan withdrawal, with videos of Gold Star family members blaming the administration for the deaths of their loved ones, were overshadowed by the politicization of Arlington and its sacred status.

Last week, Trump and his campaign sought to clarify his position on abortion rights and a ballot measure in his home state of Florida. Trump initially appeared to support the proposed amendment that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and said his second term would be “great for women and their reproductive rights.”

After backlash from abortion advocates and a campaign statement claiming that Trump had not said how he would vote on the referendum, Trump ultimately told a Fox News reporter that he would vote against it.

Trump has also publicly questioned the rules, format and fairness of next week’s debate, even as his campaign agreed to the terms and worked behind the scenes to iron out the details.

In a conversation with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday, Trump called the ABC News debate host “dishonest” and suggested, without evidence, that Harris would be asked questions in advance.

The debate will be a crucial moment for Trump to try to regain momentum against Harris, who has erased Trump’s once-considerable lead in polls in seven key swing states.

In the six weeks since the Democratic side switched sides in the race, a NPR Review Trump’s campaign speeches showed the former president struggling to pivot from a campaign tailored to defeating Biden to focusing on his new opponent.

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