SCOTT LUDWIG: Death without decorum

Activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10, 2025. One week later, J.D. Vance, the Vice President of the United States, made this statement: “If you celebrate Charlie Kirk’s death, you should not be protected from being fired for being a disgusting person.”

Six months later, just moments after former FBI Director Robert Mueller passed away at the age of 81, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, made the following post on his social media platform: “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people.”

Here is Donald Trump, a man who had a doctor’s note that prevented him from having to serve in the military because of bone spurs in his feet, celebrating the death of a man who served as a Marine in the Vietnam War and earned both a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart while serving our country.

What say ye now, J.D. Vance?

Trump’s comments, however, aren’t without precedent. Join me for a quick stroll down Memory Lane:
— 2017: Trump told the widow of a dead soldier that her husband “knew what he signed
up for.”
— 2018: Several months after John McCain passed away, Trump said, “I never was a fan of John McCain, and I never will be.” Confronted by someone saying McCain was a war
hero, Trump’s response was, “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people
that weren’t captured, OK?”

(Worth mentioning: Who can ever forget Trump referring to members of the military killed in action as “suckers” and “losers.”)

— 2019: Trump attacked the late Michigan Democratic Representative John Dingall by
stating that he was “looking up from hell.”

— 2021: Shortly after former Secretary of State Colin Powell died, Trump released a
statement calling him a “classic RINO” who was always “the first to attack other
Republicans,” a reference to Powell crossing party lines to vote against Trump in 2016
and 2020.

— 2025: Trump posted numerous attacks on the Kennedy family shortly after Tatiana
Schlossberg, an environmental journalist and the granddaughter of John F. Kennedy,
died after receiving a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer.

— 2025: Following the murders of Hollywood director and outspoken Trump critic Rob
Reiner and his wife, Trump told reporters Reiner was “very bad for our country.”

Beyond his disparaging comments following the deaths of notable Americans, Trump has a history of skipping out on their funerals – whether by choice or because he wasn’t invited – over the last decade:

.– Trump was specifically uninvited to the services for John McCain in 2018 and Dick Cheney in 2025.
— As for the ones he simply opted not to attend, the list includes Barbara Bush (2018), Elijah Cummings (2019), John Dingell (2019), John Lewis (2020), and Jess Jackson (2026). (In Trump’s defense, he did attend the funeral of George H.W. Bush in 2018 and Jimmy Carter in 2025 – a couple of months after Carter publicly cast his vote for president for Kamala Harris.

He also attended the funeral of Ivana, his first wife, in 2022.)

In honor of Charlie Kirk, “a truly Great American Patriot,” Trump ordered American flags throughout the country to be lowered to half-staff. That wasn’t the case for Robert Mueller. Flags remained at full-staff.

The ball is still in your court, J.D. Vance.