My grandmother came to spend the Christmas holidays with me in Washington, D.C. It was 1987, and I was excited to host my sweet, gentle grandmother, who’d never been to the nation’s capital. There was so much I wanted to show her.
To my surprise, she just wanted to visit Arlington National Cemetery. It was snowing, windy, and bitterly cold, but she wanted to go anyway.
The first stop was President John F. Kennedy’s Eternal Flame gravesite. Despite the falling snow and arctic wind, my grandmother stayed at the grave for a long time. Kennedy was special to us because he was the first Catholic president. Those moments by the flame, first lit by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1963, were emotional, but not as emotional as the next stop.
The snowfall and wind had grown stronger as we reached the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. She lingered there much longer and began to tear up. My grandmother didn’t know anyone buried at Arlington. Later, she told me how proud she was to see such a noble, proud soldier performing that deliberate, slow March, who would brave any condition to guard the fallen.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, along with all things that honor those who died serving the United States, deserves that kind of quiet reverence.
The transfer of fallen service members at Dover Air Force Base is a solemn occasion. Families gather silently as flag-draped coffins are carried from aircraft by military honor guards. Presidents who attend stand quietly to the side, heads bowed, speaking only later, if at all.
The moment belongs to the fallen and their families.
It’s not a place for politics.
That’s why seeing the President of the United States, on March 7th, wearing a political merchandise hat felt disrespectful. To some observers, it seemed minor or even trivial. But symbols matter. They reveal how leaders view the boundary between public duty and political performance.
Which brings us to a troubling new development.
A political action committee associated with President Donald Trump, Never Surrender Inc., will offer donors access to what it calls “private national security briefings.” The offer appears in fundraising invitations for supporters linked to different membership levels.
At first glance, the phrase sounds official, almost governmental.
But it is not.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Never Surrender Inc. is a leadership political action committee, a fundraising group created to raise and spend money for political purposes. Leadership PACs are common in American politics. They can solicit donations and use those funds for political activities, travel, consultants, and messaging.
What they are not is a government institution.
They do not conduct intelligence analysis. They do not prepare classified briefings. They are not authorized to share national security information.
Official national security briefings are created by experienced professionals in agencies like the CIA, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Council. They are given to elected officials and authorized personnel following strict protocols that govern classified information.
Their purpose is clear: to inform decisions that could affect the safety of the nation and the lives of American troops.
They are not considered a perk or a donor benefit.
And they should not appear as if they can be purchased through a political fundraising program.
The issue here might not be solely about legality. Leadership PACs can hold private events and discussions with donors. Political fundraising has historically offered access to candidates, strategy talks, and even policy briefings.
But words matter.
When a political fundraising committee promotes “national security briefings” to donors, it blurs the line between public service and private political gain. It creates the impression, whether intentional or not, that access to the nation’s most sensitive decisions could be tied to financial support.
For journalists, that distinction should prompt important questions. What exactly are donors being promised? Who is providing these briefings? Are government officials involved? This certainly couldn’t include classified information. Is this simply a strategy to repackage unclassified information?
And perhaps most importantly: why use language that sounds like official intelligence briefings at all?
Public trust in institutions is already fragile enough. Americans deserve to know that decisions about war, intelligence, and national defense are based on sober judgment—not on the optics of political fundraising.
National security is not theater.
It is not branding.
And it should never resemble a membership benefit.
Although this invitation to a ringside seat at national security briefings seems misleading, it contains something morally wrong in “selling” what the PAC offers. The invitation shows a picture of Trump wearing a campaign hat saluting an American flag-draped coffin of a fallen service member arriving at Dover Air Force Base.
The young men and women sent into harm’s way by American presidents do not serve donors or political committees. They serve the Constitution and the country. Nor should images of fallen service members be used in political fundraising.
When the flag is folded and given to a grieving family at Dover, the moment reminds us of the weight of those decisions.
That weight deserves something we once instinctively understood in public life.
A sign of humility and the silent acknowledgment that certain things in a republic should never be bought and sold.
I miss my grandmother every day, but I am grateful she is not here to see this disrespectful use of our dead heroes.