Trump Team Blasts ‘Shameful’ Treatment of Vets

As Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tries to retain his lead in New Hampshire after stumbling in Iowa, the billionaire’s campaign manager on Friday highlighted the mogul’s plan to improve health care for veterans.

The Trump plan calls for allowing veterans to seek treatment at private health facilities without the current restriction on veterans who live within 40 miles of a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center.

Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Friday on “The Laura Ingraham Show” with Betsy McCaughey guest hosting that it is a particularly salient issue in New Hampshire, which lacks a full-service VA facility. Veterans should be able to get care in their own state, he said.

“We treat the illegal aliens better than we do our veterans, and that’s shameful,” he said.

Despite his disappointing second-place finish at the Iowa caucuses, Trump maintains a comfortable lead in polls days before next week’s New Hampshire primary. A win would reinforce his position as the national front-runner, but a loss would call his viability into question.

[lz_related_box id=”101119″]

Lewandowski said Trump will campaign full time in the state until Saturday’s debate. He said he does not care a whit that Trump has not attracted endorsements from elected officials in the Granite State or across the country.

“If endorsements mattered in this race, (former Florida Gov.) Jeb Bush would be far and away the front-runner,” said Lewandowski. “If endorsements mattered, you know, Donald Trump would be where some of these other candidates are — not in the race anymore. Because we don’t have any endorsements (from New Hampshire). We’re proud of that fact.”

He added: “Nobody cares about endorsements. They care about getting things done.”

Lewandowski pushed back at the current post-Iowa narrative that Trump lost by finishing second, but that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was a winner by finishing a better-than-expected third.

Lewandowski noted that Trump received the second highest number of votes of any Republican ever at the caucuses, despite an electoral makeup that was a better fit for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

“It was amazing what we accomplished there, and the media says, ‘Trump didn’t win. He is not inevitable,’” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Lewandowski repeated the Trump doctrine: He will make great deals for America. He will crack down on illegal immigration. And he has experience that is more valuable than anything his opponents acquired in the political world.

“The difference with Mr. Trump, I think, and all the other candidates, candidly, is he’s been a business executive who’s used to being held accountable from a monetary side,” he said.