What does federal law say about partisan politics at Arlington National Cemetery?

Former President Donald Trump is being accused of breaking the rules regarding partisan political events at Arlington National Cemetery with a video released on his TikTok account. It was filmed during a visit Monday, Aug. 26, with the families of U.S. service members who died during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. 

The video is captioned: “Should have never happened.”

“We didn’t lose one person in 18 months, and then they took over that disaster, the leaving of Afghanistan,” Trump said in a voice over.

The words are a criticism of the Biden-Harris administration, his main political opponent.

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Trump’s critics contend filming or hosting any event at Arlington for partisan political purposes is against Army rules and federal law. 

So what exactly do the rules and law say? 

The media policy for Army National Military Cemeteries states: “Filming or photographing will not be permitted if it conveys the impression that cemetery officials or any visitor or family member is endorsing any product, service or organization. Additionally, ANC will not authorize any filming for partisan, political or fundraising purposes, in accordance with the Hatch Act.”

The Hatch Act is a 1939 law that was passed to ensure federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion. 

Section 553 of the Hatch Act states: “Memorial services and ceremonies at Army National Military Cemeteries will not include partisan political activities.”

There are other provisions in the media policy which give the Public Affairs Office the authority to deny event requests if they could give the appearance that the cemetery or event sponsor is endorsing a political campaign.

Exactly what happened during Trump’s visit Monday is unclear but there are accusations that Trump campaign staff had a physical and verbal altercation with Arlington cemetery employees. 

“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” Arlington told ABC News in a statement. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants. We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.” 

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung released a screenshot of a message he said proves the former president had permission. The message just said that only Trump may have an official photographer and/or videographer outside the main media pool.

“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted to the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” Cheung said in a statement.

The Trump campaign said it would release the footage of the incident with cemetery staff if necessary.