INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Donald Trump At Rolling Thunder Rally Full Speech Video: Bikers Ride Trump Train At Lincoln Memorial

By Jonathan Vankin
Published on: 04:46 PST, May 29, 2016

Donald Trump welcomed bikers aboard the “Trump Train” on Sunday when he delivered an address that is now available to viw in the video below, from the Lincoln Memorial to the annual Rolling Thunder rally that brings thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts to Washington D.C. for a giant event designed to honor United States prisoners of war — despite the fact that Trump earlier ridiculed POWs for getting “captured.”

It was nearly a year ago, in July 2015, when Donald Trump remarked that United States Senator and 2008 Republican Presidential nominee John McCain, who was held as a prisoner and repeatedly tortured by the North Vietnamese for 5 years during the Vietnam War, could not be considered a “war hero” because he was “captured.”

“I like people that weren’t captured,” Trump said last July. “People that fought hard and weren’t captured and went through a lot, they get no credit. Nobody even talks about them. They’re like forgotten. And I think that’s a shame, if you want to know the truth.”

Nonetheless, the Rolling Thunder bikers appeared excited to hear Trump, despite his earlier derisive remarks about prisoners of war.

“What he said about me, John McCain, that’s fine. I don’t require any repair of that,” McCain told CNN earlier in May. “But when he said, ‘I don’t like people who were captured,’ then there’s a body of American heroes, and I’d like to see him retract that statement. Not about me, but about the others.”

Watch an expert analysis of how Donald Trump remarks about POWs may affect his presidential bid in the video below.

To watch a full speech video of Donald Trump at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., addressing thousands of bikers at the Rolling Thunder rallyon Sunday, May 29, click on the video below.

Trump has also run into trouble with veterans over his claim to have donated $1 million to veterans advocacy groups, as a result of a supposed fundraiser held by Trump when he backed out of a Fox News presidential debate earlier this year, holding his own event — which he described as a veterans’ fundraiser — at the same time.

Donald Trump himself said in February that he personally donated $1 million to veteran’s organizations, but news organizations were not able to confirm which groups received the supposed funds, or if Trump made the $1 million donation at all.

Sarah Palin Donald Trump At Rolling Thunder Biker Rally Stream Live
Former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (r) appears Sunday at the Rolling Thunder biker rally. [Photo By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]
Only on Wednesday, May 26 — three months after Trump claimed to have made the donation — did a veterans group known as the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation confirm that the money from Trump had actually come in.

“We did receive the check this morning and deposited it locally,” a spokesperson for the group that is set up to support children of United States Marines, as well as federal law enforcement officers, who have been killed in the line of duty, told CNN last week.

How do veterans, such as those who will take part in the Rolling Thunder biker rally and who will hear Donald Trump speak to them on Sunday, actually feel about Donald Trump?

MORE DONALD TRUMP COVERAGE FROM THE INQUISITR:

Veterans traditionally back Republican presidential candidates, according to polling. But while Trump leads Hillary Clinton among U.S. military veterans, according a Morning Consult poll released Thursday, their enthusiasm for Trump is tepid compared to how veterans have backed previous GOP presidential nominees.

The poll found that Trump leads Clinton by just nine percentage points. But just 4 years ago, Mitt Romney led incumbent president Barack Obama by 24 points among veterans. In 2008, McCain himself led then-Senator Obama by 22 percent and in 2004 then-president George W. Bush topped Democratic nominee John Kerry by 14 points.

While the Rolling Thunder rally is the only public Donald Trump event currently on the candidate’s schedule, Trump is expected to add new rallies that will stream live later in the week in states such as California and New York.

[Photo By Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

Share this article: Donald Trump At Rolling Thunder Rally Full Speech Video: Bikers Ride Trump Train At Lincoln Memorial
Donald Trump
More from Inquisitr