Donald Trump Campaigns at Rolling Thunder

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was a last-minute addition to the program at Rolling Thunder, an annual celebration of U.S. military veterans with a special emphasis on prisoners of war (POWs) and those missing in action (MIAs).

TYT's Eric Byler ( @EricByler ) asked supporters about the Trump's comments about former POW Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) not being a war hero because he was captured. And, he asked about Trump's 2011 campaign to discredit the military's Commander in Chief by claiming he was not really an American citizen.

The majority of people at the rally were much more focused on supporting veterans that Mr. Trump, and in fact the crowd did always listen to his speech. A woman berated a group holding "Bikers for Trump," "Hillary for Prison," and "Make America Great Again" for politicizing an event and a holiday weekend that is supposed to be about honoring military veterans.

Mr. Trump lamented in his remarks that the crowd was not as large as it had been for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's "March on Washington." But he explained that traffic had limited the crowd size, otherwise it would have been huge.

Zachary DeLongchamp of Northern Virginia wrote:

"Today, I was tricked into attending a Trump rally.

I was participating in an event in D.C. called Rolling Thunder, a motorcycle ride from the pentagon to the Vietnam memorial by millions of bikers every year. the purpose of the ride is to bring awareness to prisoners of war.

instead, Donald Trump showed up half way through (halting the parade) after saying “He’s not a war hero, He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” about McCain last year, and avoiding the draft during the Vietnam war. he has no respect for veterans, and yet here he was.

this year, no one will speak for the lost. their voice was stolen by Donald Trump. his bigoted agenda made sure that illegal immigrants were to blame for healthcare being unreachable to veterans, and mexico being blamed for them not having jobs, will be anything anyone talks about after this event.

POW flags changed to trump stickers, and american flags turned to white pride. no one cared that most of the attendees to the rally had lost friends, brothers, fathers, to war. all anyone cared about was that trump stood in the shadow of MLK at the Lincoln memorial, and complained that he didn’t have the same sized crowd.

No matter how you feel about the military, veterans, bikers, the POW flag, or anything else Rolling Thunder represents, we can agree that opportunistic aspiring dictators do not belong with them."