Trump lays wreath at Arlington National Cemetery as Tulsi Gabbard cuts a lonely figure after quitting White House

President Donald Trump commemorated Memorial Day on Monday with an appearance at Arlington National Cemetery.

It likely marked one of his final official appearances alongside departing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who informed the President on Friday that she would leave the job at the end of June. 

She said she was leaving the administration due to her husband’s cancer diagnosis. 

A former Democratic congresswoman who backed progressive Senator Bernie Sanders during the 2016 race, Gabbard was welcomed into Trump’s MAGA fold during the 2024 race.

Gabbard helped the President build a bipartisan coalition that also included former Democrat, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, now Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary.  

She’s a US Army reservist who served in the Iraq war. 

Gabbard stood alongside other Cabinet members, including Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and FBI Director Kash Patel. 

Trump participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery alongside Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.  

En route to Arlington, Trump’s motorcade passed the site where the President wants to build his triumphal arch, to mark the country’s 250th birthday. 

On Monday, a group of anti-arch protesters had gathered at the site, heckling the President as he drove by with large signs that read ‘arch insanity’ and one that labeled Trump a ‘rapist.’ 

A group of Vietnam War veterans is suing the administration over the ‘Arc de Trump,’ arguing it blocks the view of Arlington National Cemetery from the Lincoln Memorial. 

The project could also be derailed by a Federal Aviation Administration review that will determine whether the arch poses a flight hazard. 

On the ground at Arlington, Hegseth and Vance were the President’s warm-up act. 

When it was Trump’s turn, the President connected the somber occasion to the upcoming July 4 holiday.

‘Less than six weeks from now, our nation will reach a historic milestone, 250 years of majestic independence,’ Trump said. 

‘Before we hail the founding, we honor the fallen. Before we celebrate the triumph, we pay the tribute,’ he said. 

This year’s Memorial Day is the first since Trump ordered military action in Venezuela and a larger assault on Iran following last June’s bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites. 

‘In two wars recently, we’ve lost a total of 13 service members,’ Trump said. 

‘In Venezuela, which was a complete and total victory, we’re working very closely with the Venezuelan government right now. We took that over in one day. Lost no one,’ the President said.

‘In Operation Epic Fury, we lost 13 wonderful souls,’ he noted. ‘These incredible men and women gave their lives to ensure that the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror will never have a nuclear weapon.’

‘Oh, and they won’t,’ Trump added. ‘I assure you.’ 

The family of one of the war dead,  Major Ariana Savino, was in the crowd.

Trump called her death a ‘selfless gift’ that will ‘not be in vain.’  

This is breaking news and will be updated.