President Donald Trump went on the offensive against the U.S. military on Monday during a White House press conference, accusing the “top people in the Pentagon” of fighting endless wars in order to help arms companies make profits. Trump’s remarks came days after The Atlantic published a tell-all account of the President’s 2018 trip to Paris and the disparaging remarks he made about veterans and fallen soldiers in World War I. The Huffington Post said that “critics were flabbergasted” in response to his Labor Day comments and pointed out that, “It was Trump who picked Mark Esper — former chief lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon ― to be the current secretary of defense.” When asked about The Atlantic story, Trump called it “a hoax,” and the writer a “slime ball,” and that “”Only an animal would say things,” of the type that were attributed to him. Several reporters and media outlets, including Fox News corroborated Trump’s private comments calling soldiers “losers” and “suckers.”

On Sunday Trump tweeted a report about the state of California implementing a New York Times-led project about the US’s history of slavery called 1618. He warned that the “Department of Education is looking at this,” and that the state’s schools would lose funding. When asked about it on Monday by reporters Trump denounced “cancel culture” and then went on to demand the cancelation of the 1618 project. His comments are in line with continued assaults against racial justice and come soon after his government sent a memo to agencies canceling racial sensitivity training for staff. The memo read, “All agencies are directed to begin to identify all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on ‘critical race theory,’ ‘white privilege,’ or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil.” Trump’s Presidency has emboldened white supremacist groups, some of which showed up in the town of Salem, Oregon over the weekend in order to clash with Black Lives Matter protests. In another part of the country, Trump-supporting groups came together in Texas on numerous boats in Lake Travis in an event that ended in disaster after 15 calls for distress were made, and 5 boats festooned with Trump flags sank. 

As Trump heads to Florida and North Carolina on Tuesday, reports emerged that his reelection campaign that was flush with cash just months ago is now dangerously short of funds. On Sunday the New York Times pointed out that Trump spent about $58 million of his reelection campaign funds on his personal and business legal expenses against lawsuits seeking his tax returns.