"Claim Your Spot"

Trump's PAC Sells Access Using Fallen Soldiers' Coffins

On March 7, 2026, six Army Reservists killed by an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait came home to Dover Air Force Base in flag-draped transfer cases. President Donald Trump attended the dignified transfer. Before walking onto the tarmac, he put on a white baseball cap, gold-embroidered with "USA" on the front and "45-47" on the side, available for $55 on his merchandise website. He did not remove it.

Five days later, his PAC sent out a fundraising email.

Never Surrender, Inc., a political action committee linked to Trump, distributed the email on March 12. It featured an official White House photograph, taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, showing Trump saluting one of those flag-draped transfer cases. Flanking the image, in bold clickable text, were the words "CLAIM YOUR SPOT."

The pitch offered donors enrollment in what the email called a "National Security Briefing Membership," promising "private national security briefings" from the president himself, described as "unfiltered updates on the threats facing America," covering everything from foreign adversaries to what the email characterized as "deep state sabotage." Donors could contribute up to $1,000 or more to unlock this apparent exclusive. The White House did not respond to media requests for comment.

To be clear about the timeline: the soldiers died, their remains were flown home, the president saluted their coffins in a hat from his own merchandise store, and less than a week after the transfer that same image was embedded in a campaign solicitation. The military describes the dignified transfer as a "solemn movement." It is typically attended by family members and senior officials. It is not, by any established norm or tradition, a content opportunity.

Trump's initial defense was that he had attended the ceremony, unlike "a lot of other people," a response that raised more questions than it answered, since no unnamed group of people had any reason to be there, and attendance at a dignified transfer has never been considered a qualifying credential for monetizing the occasion. He later added, "There's nobody that's better to the military than me," a statement that the families of the six servicemen killed under his military operation may evaluate differently.

The political response came quickly. Democratic members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee called the email "deeply shameful." Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey pointed out that he hoped the donors' promised national security briefings would include information about Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, a scenario the administration had reportedly failed to anticipate. Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, an Iraq War veteran, publicly demanded the email be retracted and whoever approved it be fired. New York Representative Pat Ryan, also a veteran, called Trump a "Grifter in Chief."

Since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28, thirteen U.S. service members have been killed across the Middle East, with around 140 more injured. The fundraising email went out while that number was still climbing.

The photograph that ran in the email was an official White House image. The families of those six servicemen had no say in how it was used.

There is no law that explicitly prohibits a sitting president's PAC from using images of military funerals in campaign materials. That absence of prohibition is not the same thing as permission, and the families of the fallen did not get a vote on whether their grief would become a donation prompt.

@Santitos

@salinasmariasantos

Copyright © 2026 Maria Santos Salinas for FRONTeras.

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