If you believe that Donald Trump called American soldiers killed in Europe in World War I “suckers” and “losers,” boy, have NPR, The Washington Post, and The New York Times got a story for you.

Back in the 2020 presidential campaign, The Atlantic broke and the Leftmedia relentlessly churned a story about Trump’s alleged remarks. But as our Douglas Andrews wrote at the time, it was fake news. Leftmedia outlets still stand by it.

So, forgive me if I’m a bit skeptical of the 2024 version.

It began with an NPR story Tuesday alleging that Trump’s campaign staff “had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery.” Trump attended a ceremony there that day honoring the 13 Americans killed by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s disastrous decision to surrender and retreat from Afghanistan.

Here’s the ever-so-trustworthy and totally-not-biased NPR:

A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.

When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.

You could almost hear editors in other Leftmedia newsrooms rub their hands with glee. Here was their golden opportunity to distract from what otherwise was a glaring reminder of the colossal Biden/Harris blunder, as well as Tim Walz’s continuing stolen valor saga. Besides, Democrats don’t enjoy wide support among the military rank and file, so demoralizing military voters with a negative story about Trump helps The Cause.

Some military personnel, Veterans, and their families may indeed be upset by the story. But it’s not as if military voters aren’t already demoralized by Team Biden/Harris/Walz.

I’m not saying Trump or his staffers were perfect angels or comported themselves fully with the dignified protocol of honoring fallen Armed Forces personnel. Maybe the “altercation” happened. Maybe it was also provoked by someone who doesn’t like Trump. How are we supposed to know the full truth when we can’t trust the media to report things honestly?

Indeed, the entire point of stories in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and a follow-up from NPR is pushing a theme: Trump and his staff are horrible people for exploiting military dead.

“Defense officials were concerned about the event Monday,” reports the Post, “because Republicans have frequently used the bombing, a low point of the Biden administration, as a political cudgel.” That’s right; Republicans are the problem, not the fact that the two most powerful Democrats are responsible for 13 American military deaths. Another reminder: Leftists have politicized almost literally everything, yet they claim that somehow this is out of bounds.

From the Times, we learn that Trump took pictures in front of the grave of a soldier whose family didn’t give permission — while standing for a picture with a family that did give permission. A “fact-check” at Snopes confirms that Trump was pictured at the cemetery giving a thumbs-up. And his campaign did, in fact, release a TikTok video with footage from the area in question, which the Post called “a flagrant violation of the law against partisan actions at military cemeteries.”

As with Trump’s recent Medal of Honor equivocation, those things aren’t commendable. They’re also vintage Trump, and most people know that. The guy routinely gives a thumbs-up for pictures — it’s a friendly and fun approach that endears him to supporters. He also tends to be generally irreverent. We’ve always wished he were more careful and thoughtful, but he’s just not. It’s what makes him so loved and so hated.

There’s also the noteworthy fact that family members of the 13 Americans killed on that fateful day in Afghanistan have confirmed that neither Biden nor Harris have ever reached out to them. Heck, Biden checked his watch multiple times in the receiving ceremonies for their remains.

Which is the greater faux pas? A former president visiting Arlington to honor the dead, or a sitting president ignoring the fallen — whose deaths he is responsible for?

By the way, the family members invited Trump to the Arlington ceremony, which is the first one there for these Americans in three years since their deaths. And without intervention from House Speaker Mike Johnson, Trump would not have been allowed to attend. Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was contacted by Darin Hoover and Kelly Barnett, parents of SSGT Darin Taylor Hoover, saying that cemetery officials were making it difficult to coordinate allowing Trump’s entrance. McCaul passed it to Johnson, who intervened.

For their trouble, they get a spate of negative Leftmedia stories about Donald Trump. That only compounds their grief over their son’s death, which, again, is due to the malfeasance of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Update 8/29: This just in from the New York Post:

The US Army issued a blistering statement Thursday that claimed the Trump campaign flouted federal laws when he posed for a photo with Gold Star families at Arlington National Cemetery — allegedly leading to a physical altercation between campaign staff and a cemetery employee.

Online critics of the Army statement were quick to point out that President Biden had twice used Arlington National Cemetery: Once for a campaign video in June of this year; and once before the 2020 election, which apparently showed him standing over a grave in Section 60 — the same area Trump visited.