Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’.
The president has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades, multiple sources told The Atlantic.
We wanted to see how this fit in with other actions like the US not responding to the Russians offering bounties to kill American soldiers. We took ten examples of how President Trump has dealt with the Armed Forces and analyzed how veteran communities would be most hurt by the proposed Republican $2.2 billion cuts to military healthcare. That is a lot of information to share. DemLabs designed a StoryMap that packages all this into an interactive story that can be scanned in a minute. Or readers can dig in for details.
How to design a StoryMap
StoryMaps is a free app that allows you to create interactive stories such as "Thank you for your service". These stories can include a narrative, images, videos, maps and links. The stories are stored online and can be read on a laptop or phone. Stories can be revised with new content as needed. Campaigns and non-profits benefit from StoryMaps as new stories can be created quickly, for free and with little training. The stories are colorful, engaging and readers can explore them at their own pace.
Storytelling for impact
The theme of this story was to highlight the disgraceful treatment of the Armed Forces, the harm that veteran healthcare benefit cuts will have and the importance of servicemen voting. This story has six components:
Introduction - Headline, photo and introduction.
Trump refusal to honor American dead while in France - Based on the excellent article by Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic.
Examples of other Trump treatment of the Armed Forces and Veterans - Trump's comments about President George Bush, Senator John McCain, Khizr Khan (Gold Star father of a slain soldier), General Kelly and Captain Crozier.
Military healthcare cuts - Communities that would be hurt the most by the $2.2 billion Republican cut to the military healthcare budget.
Military voters - Resources to register to vote, request vote by mail ballots and groups advocating for veterans.
Acknowledgements - To recognize the different sources of information we used.