The Daily Beast has a story on Trump arguing with a group of Vietnam veterans about the movie Apocalypse Now, but what's important is the reason why he argued with them about it.
Veterans were understandably upset when Trump appointed Omarosa Manigault-Newman as a liaison to veterans last year so, in response, Trump met with a group of veterans at the White House where the argument began.
Among the group of veterans was Rick Weidman, co-founder of Vietnam Veterans of America, who asked Trump to expand the number of Vietnam veterans eligible for benefits because of their exposure to Agent Orange during the war.
Trump then gaslit the group of veterans by insisting that he had already done that.
Trump responded by saying, “That’s taken care of,” according to people in the room.
His reply puzzled the group.
Attendees began explaining to the president that the VA had not made enough progress on the issue at all, to which Trump responded by abruptly derailing the meeting and asking the attendees if Agent Orange was “that stuff from that movie.”
He did not initially name the film he was referencing, but it quickly became clear as Trump kept rambling that he was referring to the classic 1979 Francis Ford Coppola epic Apocalypse Now, and specifically the famous helicopter attack scene set to the “Ride of the Valkyries.”
Source present at the time tell The Daily Beast that multiple people—including Vietnam War veterans—chimed in to inform the president that the Apocalypse Now set piece he was talking about showcased the U.S. military using napalm, not Agent Orange.
Trump refused to accept that he was mistaken and proceeded to say things like, “no, I think it’s that stuff from that movie.”
In a single moment, Trump clearly demonstrated that he doesn't even know what Agent Orange is after telling the group of veterans that he has "taken care of it." And this was in a room full of veterans who actually fought in the war and know full well what the VA has or hasn't done for them.
Trump never served in the war, of course. He received multiple deferments and once said his "personal Vietnam" was dodging sexually transmitted diseases in the 1980s.
Even in a sea of idiotic and insensitive Trump moments, this manages to stand out.