DAYTONA BEACH, FL—On the heels of his communications team trashing Donald Trump-allied Lawmakers out of step with the Governor's views, Gov. Ron DeSantis has accused Vice President Kamala Harris of not caring about Gold Star families as he rushed to Trump's defense Tuesday amid the swirling Arlington National Cemetery controversy.
"He was invited by the Gold Star families—he didn't just show up to make a scene. They invited him to be there. They asked him to pose for photos with the family members of the fallen," DeSantis said at a Tuesday morning press conference, questioning why "Harris and the media" are targeting Trump.
"But here's the thing, if people like Harris and the media are going to express more outrage about that than the people that made them Gold Star families in the first place, something is wrong—that is unacceptable," he added.
This is the first sign of a DeSantis-Trump olive branch as of late; in the past week, the Governor's communications team publicly attacked Rep. Randy Fine, who is running for state Senate, and Sen. Joe Gruters, who will run for Chief Financial Officer in 2026, on social media. Both are closely aligned pro-Trump Lawmakers who were among the small minority in the Republican-supermajority Legislature that endorsed the former President over DeSantis during the presidential primary.
Trump over the weekend also signaled his support for Florida's Amendment 3, a ballot initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana. It's also a measure that DeSantis has strongly opposed—claiming it would make the state "smell" and would allow people to "bring 20 joints to an elementary school."
But now, DeSantis is weighing in on a controversial issue aimed at Trump, pointing out that he was invited by the families while accusing the Biden-Harris administration of caring more about illicit photos than the ISIS-K suicide bomber who killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghan civilians at Hamid Karzai International Airport's Abbey Gate.
Last week, some families who lost loved ones in the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan invited Trump to Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate the third anniversary of the soldiers' passing. He was rapidly criticized by Harris, the Army (which operates the cemetery), and other Gold Star families for taking photos in a restricted area of the cemetery, Section 60, and posing with a smile and thumbs up in front of the deceased's graves.
A Trump campaign staffer allegedly also had an "altercation" with an Arlington official, though Trump insisted it's a "made-up story."
"[Trump] disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt," Harris posted to her X account. However, seven of the families came to Trump's defense, as they had personally invited him, and instead accused Harris of "twisting this sacred moment into a political ploy."
They added that she "bears responsibility for the deaths of our sons and daughters," in her capacity as Vice President.
