It isn’t every day that you see a gesture like this.
President Trump stopped to retrieve a Marine’s hat as he was about to board Marine One, the official presidential helicopter that takes him to and from the White House, in this case at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The Marine guard, who’s tasked with standing at attention while the president boards the helicopter, is not allowed by custom to retrieve a hat or any other object that comes off his person, so the president’s gesture was especially kind and helpful.
In assisting this Marine, Trump showed that now only does he respect our country’s armed forces, he also showed his basic humanity in allowing the soldier to perform his job with dignity. Even though the hat soon blew off again from the force of the helicopter’s rotor, Trump reminded us all of his basic core values and that he’s not so far removed from the lower ranks of our forces.
This gesture likely comes from Trump’s upbringing, in which he attended New York Military Academy, so the president is intimately familiar with military rules, regulations, customs and duty. As Americans, we’re lucky to have a leader who’s not so removed from the day-to-day affairs of our nation’s ordinary military officers that he can’t take a moment and pitch in when someone needs a hand. Sometimes little gestures of assistance can speak the loudest of all. Watch a replay of the full moment.
